About Nuclear

Rolls-Royce is well-positioned to benefit from the global renaissance in civil nuclear power.

To address this fast growing global market, Rolls-Royce has established a new business unit with the capability to offer a broad range of civil nuclear expertise, including work related to licensing and safety reviews, engineering design, supply chain management, manufacturing, installation and commissioning of the nuclear island systems and equipments, as well as operational management and through life support.

Rolls-Royce has been part of the UK's nuclear industry from the start - our continuous involvement spans over half a century in the design and supply of equipment for both civil and military reactors.

The Group will play a key role in the UK’s nuclear reactor new build programme. We have the largest nuclear skills base in the UK, with an existing nuclear certified supply chain of 260 companies.

Civil Nuclear market

We also provide technical services in the UK and US civil nuclear markets, as well as safety critical instrumentation and control in Europe, the USA and many other international markets, including all 58 operating nuclear facilities in France.

The civil nuclear market is currently worth around £30 billion a year globally and is expected to grow to £50 billion a year in 15 years’ time, more than 70% of which will relate to the building and support of new facilities.

It is estimated that the nuclear programme in the UK will sustain 10,000-15,000 jobs over 25 years of which 45% will be engineers. Rolls-Royce aims to bring the best people in the nuclear industry into the company as it grows and develops its capabilities in one of the most exciting and fast moving industries in the world.

Submarine nuclear propulsion

Nuclear submarine systems and equipment, design, procurement, operation and support are areas where Rolls-Royce is a world leader. For fifty years Rolls-Royce has been the Technical Authority for the UK Nuclear Steam Raising Plant (NSRP) which powers all Royal Navy submarines.

Through life-support is provided for the complete life-cycle of the propulsion plant and recent technological advances have included the development of the long life core for the new Astute class, designed to last for the life of the platform.

To fulfill the Technical Authority role we employ specialists in many engineering disciplines, including design, stress analysis, structural integrity assessment, NDE, thermo-hydraulic analysis, materials and chemistry. With the decision to replace the UK nuclear deterrent in 2007 work is now progressing on developing the design requirements for a new propulsion plant. Rolls-Royce is developing and assessing the options for this new plant and is using the latest nuclear engineering skills to provide a plant design that will deliver a step change in safety and availability, while reducing through life costs.

Our role today covers all major activities - design, project management, procurement and safety assessment. Worldwide submarine operational support is provided around the clock from Derby and at the waterfront through support staff based at naval bases in the UK.

Resources and experience for new nuclear build…from concept to completion

We understand the challenge and are ideally placed to support all phases of the project. We can analyse the technical, economic, licensing and feasibility issues as well as assisting with site selection.

We have the only current supply chain for new nuclear components and a particular strength is our ability to offer a complete range of services, from technical support and engineering design for manufacture, installation and operation plus supply chain management or simply build to print. We supplied a range of equipment and support services for Sizewell B – the last new nuclear power station to be built in the UK - including the pressuriser vessel.

Wide range of capabilities

We have the only current UK supply chain for new nuclear components
Our Derby manufacturing centre produces a range of pressure vessels and components
Rolls-Royce is a world leader In Distributed Control and Information Systems (DCIS) with over 900 reactor years of experience on 97 plants worldwide.

Innovative nuclear services

We understand the regulatory and commercial pressures for Operators and our specialist through life services capabilities ensure plants operate safely and reliably, and minimise downtime. To make accurate assessments of plant performance we can provide a unique capability of in-service inspection using a range of technologies, non-destructive materials sampling and in-situ repair techniques.