UK-based global industrial technology group Rolls-Royce has announced that the small modular nuclear reactor (SMR) consortium that it leads has upgraded the SMR’s design and increased its power output. This announcement, on Monday, marked the completion of the first phase of the project, which was achieved on time and under budget. Further, the consortium (UK SMR) aims not only to be assessed by UK regulators during the second half of this year, but also to be the first reactor design to be assessed by them during this, just opened, assessment ‘window’. This would keep the programme on course to construct its first SMR early next decade and have built as many as ten by 2035.