Chiltern Vital Group (CVG) and Cambridge Atomworks have signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) to establish a prototype research and development facility for the Odin microreactor. The project will be located at the Berkeley Green Science & Technology Park (BGSTP) in Gloucestershire, England.
The Odin design uses a low-pressure molten salt coolant avoiding the need for a heavy, high-pressure containment vessel. It uses natural convection as its ultimate heat sink and can fit inside a standard shipping container for fast deployment. It uses high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) fuel enriched up to 20%.
Cambridge Atomworks, closely allied with the research departments at the University of Cambridge, was founded in 2023 as a specialist consulting partnership. It was hired on an outsourced basis by the US-based NANO Nuclear to design a transportable nuclear micro-reactor. Cambridge Atomworks successfully guided the Odin design through its first major technical hurdle: a pre-conceptual design review by the US Department of Energy (DOE) at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). In 2024, regulatory engagement for the Odin design officially began with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
In September 2025, NANO Nuclear shifted its corporate strategy toward fixed reactors for data centres and Cambridge Atomworks signed a LOI to buy back 100% of the Odin intellectual property for $6.2m. A memorandum of understanding was signed with engineering and management consultancy Mott MacDonald in March to accelerate technical development and scale up the reactor infrastructure.
Chiltern Vital Berkeley (CVB), the CVG subsidiary company that owns and is developing BGSTP, is in final stage negotiations with multiple nuclear and energy technology companies wishing to locate to the site. “Cambridge Atomworks agreeing to site their prototype research and development facility at Berkeley represents another important step forward for the development of the Berkeley Green Science and Technology Park (BGSTP) by Chiltern Vital Berkeley as a global zero carbon energy technology, education and training hub within the Severn Edge Nuclear Supercluster,” said Chris Turner, CEO of CVG and CVB.
Cambridge Atomworks sees the agreement with CVB as a major step forward in the regulatory development of Odin. It will provide key answers about the combined physics and thermal hydraulics of the micro-reactor required by regulators across the world. Cambridge Atomworks CEO Ian Farnan said, “After our physics demonstration campaign has been completed, our objective is to use the Berkeley-based prototype reactor as a training facility for our global workforce and the UK nuclear workforce. Currently, there is no reactor training facility for this purpose in the UK.”
BGSTP is located on part of the Berkeley NPP site. Both the Berkeley NPP and nearby Oldbury NPP are decommissioned Magnox reactors now undergoing dismantling. The two sites, separated by only eight miles in a straight line along the eastern banks of the River Severn, are treated as a unified “twin-site” known as the Severn Edge Nuclear Supercluster.
BGSTP was established in 2016 by South Gloucestershire and Stroud College (SGS). The SGS Group stepped in to save the redundant Berkeley Nuclear Laboratories on the NPP site from total demolition. They purchased a 999-year lease on the site from Nuclear Decommissioning Authority for £3m ($3.9m). The development was heavily backed by Gloucestershire County Council, Stroud District Council, and the local enterprise partnership, GFirst LEP, which contributed an additional £7m.
In September 2017, the park opened its flagship facility, the SGS Berkeley Green University Technical College (UTC), which specialises in engineering, cybersecurity, and digital tech education. While SGS founded the park to focus on education and low-carbon businesses, they understood the need for private backing. In August 2024, SGS sold the park for £6.5m to CVG, shifting its focus to becoming a major low-carbon nuclear “super cluster”.
With the sale of the park to CVG, the site is undergoing a major expansion to add 600,000 square feet of new lab and manufacturing spaces to attract more SMR developers. The park is part of a broader government strategy to place the Berkeley and Oldbury sites at the heart of the UK’s new nuclear rollout. Several major SMR players are strongly linked to or heavily interested in the immediate area. Rolls-Royce SMR is a core partner of CVG at Berkeley. They are focused on deploying reactors at the adjacent Oldbury site and using Berkeley as a safety, innovation, and workforce training hub.
Because the park is a key pillar of the Severn Edge Nuclear Supercluster, it is highly relevant to the companies shortlisted by Great British Energy-Nuclear (GBE-N) for the UK’s SMR programme. Four global technology vendors are on GBE-N’s final shortlist: Rolls-Royce SMR (470 MWe PWR design), GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (BWRX-300 design), Westinghouse Electric (AP300 SMR design), and Holtec Britain (SMR-300 design.
GBE-N bought the Oldbury site from Hitachi as part of a £160m deal in March 2024. This purchase brought the strategic land back under UK government control after Hitachi, which acquired the site in 2012, had abandoned its own corporate plans for the sites in 2020 due to cost pressures GBE-N has applied for planning permissions to begin physical ground investigations and site characterisation for up to six SMRs. Target construction is slated to begin around 2029. GBE-N has not yet selected the winning vendor or vendor mix for the Oldbury land.
