Mott MacDonald to support Holtec Britain on the delivery of small modular reactors in the UK

Mott MacDonald, the global engineering, management, and development consultancy, has been appointed as the delivery partner for the Generic Design Assessment (GDA) of Holtec’s Small Modular Reactor SMR-300 in the UK.

Having successfully supported Holtec Britain in securing £30M of grant funding from the UK Government’s Future Nuclear Enabling Fund for the GDA, Mott MacDonald will now provide safety, engineering, environmental, and regulatory support to Holtec Britain throughout the process.

Starting the GDA assessment is a major milestone towards Holtec’s ambition of deploying a fleet of small modular reactors (SMRs) in the UK by 2050 to bring reliable and affordable electricity and heat to UK households, businesses, and industrial users, with first operation planned for the early 2030s. Roughly the size of two football fields, with production capacity of 300MWe per unit, Holtec’s SMR-300 is a first-of-its-kind advanced SMR, offering safe, reliable, and economical carbon-free power.

The GDA process is a significant activity required for new nuclear reactor designs. The process allows UK independent nuclear regulators – the Office for Nuclear Regulation, the Environment Agency, and Natural Resources Wales – to assess the safety, security, and environmental implications of new reactor designs and to provide the confidence that these new designs are capable of meeting the UK's statutory regulatory requirements.

SMRs are nuclear fission reactors designed to be built at a smaller size, but in larger numbers than the world’s current nuclear fleet. They are cost competitive and considered to be more versatile, scalable, sustainable, financeable, and efficient. With wider-ranging applications such as generation of industrial heat and hydrogen production, they are well placed to help the UK government achieve its ambition of generating 24GWe of nuclear capacity by 2050.

Commenting on the appointment, Dr Ming Tan, technical excellence lead for Nuclear at Mott MacDonald, said: “Mott MacDonald has a proven history of successfully delivering major nuclear projects in the UK for over 50 years. We are confident that the technical excellence and experience of our engineers and scientists will guide Holtec through a successful GDA, ensuring this small modular reactor technology can help deliver a more secure and lower carbon energy future for the UK population.”