Rolls-Royce Secures Deal To Build Small Nuclear Reactors For Sweden
- Reference: 0183973676
- News link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/06/18/2335235/rolls-royce-secures-deal-to-build-small-nuclear-reactors-for-sweden
- Source link:
> Following a rigorous selection process that started in 2022, UK engineering giant Rolls-Royce's nuclear division, Rolls-Royce SMR, won the contract to build nuclear reactors for Sweden. As part of the deal, the group, selected by Videberg Kraft as its partner, will deliver three Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) to Sweden's west coast, at the Varo Peninsula. "The Videberg Project will build Sweden's first new nuclear power plant in more than forty years, supporting industries and households in southern Sweden," a press statement from Rolls-Royce said. The partnership with utility Vattenfall and developer Karnfull Next is seen as one of the most advanced opportunities for deployment outside of the UK.
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> [...] The European Commission considers small modular reactors (SMRs) to be a promising low-carbon technology that could help support the bloc's clean energy and energy security goals. In order to remove regulatory barriers, the EU's SMR strategy was adopted in March 2026 to accelerate the development and deployment of the technology across Europe. SMRs are smaller than conventional nuclear power plants, typically generating between 20 and 300 megawatts of electricity. At the upper end of that range, a reactor could produce around 7.2 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per day -- enough to power hundreds of thousands of homes. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that more than 1,000 small modular reactors could be deployed worldwide by 2050 under a supportive policy scenario, requiring cumulative investment of around $670 billion.
[1] https://www.euronews.com/business/2026/06/16/rolls-royce-secures-deal-to-build-small-nuclear-reactors-for-sweden
Not from the US (Score:2)
There may also have been some geopolitical considerations. Long-term geopolitical stability and supply chains were among the factors considered. While both finalists were from close allies (the UK and the US), Sweden may have preferred a European-based industrial partnership for a strategic infrastructure project expected to operate for 60 years or more. Thank you, mister President.
How much power do they make? (Score:2)
"adequate"
Make it stop (Score:2)
In a fit of irony I'm finishing up a podcast on an old scam of a bullshit box that did nothing, and was sold for millions up and up and up until it wound up in Iraq in the latter half of the 00's as a "bomb detector". And somehow people kept buying them despite all the proof it was made up, it was an empty box of functionally nothing. But it got in the news. And people read about it being bought in the news, or being promoted in the news, by bribed assholes. And they bought it.
And while mini nuclear reac
Re: (Score:2)
Chernobyl was the total opposite of a smart and safe design. It was like driving a car by revving the engine to the max, and moderating the speed by pressing the brake only. It exploded because the engineers were testing what would happen if the brake stopped working. Oddly, your comment about windmills and batteries is still spot on.
I can't wait (Score:2)
Until M. Bjoernstroem installs one behind hs garage.
In which 3rd world country can we store the waste? (Score:1)
Because having high radioactive waste within the EU borders is in violation with the EU Green Tree act so we need to get rid of this waste fuel somewhere outside of the EU.
Re: (Score:2)
It probably won't happen anyway. RR are getting a lot of money for R&D, but nobody (including RR) has figured out how to make these things viable. Too expensive, worse fuel and waste problems than traditional reactors, and they still need most of the same infrastructure.
Even if they do somehow overcome all the issues, by the time they are ready to start delivering they will be completely irrelevant anyway. The share rate at which renewables and storage are advancing means nothing else has much of a futu
Re:In which 3rd world country can we store the was (Score:5, Informative)
> [blah blah idiocies]
Educate yourself. I can exemplify about France.
Nuclear waste is a very small amount. "As of the most recent inventory, France had roughly 1,850 cubic meters of vitrified high-level waste in storage, a volume that would fit inside a modest single-story house." [1]https://scienceinsights.org/wh... [scienceinsights.org] They are stored in Marcoule and La Hague (a small town in France, not the well-known Dutch city), where the vitrified canisters are produced.
A geological storage, 500 meters below the town of Bure has been constructed and is pending final operation licencing. See [2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
For the exhaustive list of every place that owns nuclear waste in France (every power plant, transport site, research center, etc.), you can consult:
* the map provided by the Government [3]https://inventaire.andra.fr/in... [andra.fr]
* the map by Greenpeace [4]https://www.greenpeace.fr/cart... [greenpeace.fr]
[1] https://scienceinsights.org/what-does-france-do-with-nuclear-waste/
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meuse/Haute_Marne_Underground_Research_Laboratory
[3] https://inventaire.andra.fr/inventaire
[4] https://www.greenpeace.fr/carte-dechets-nucleaires/