UK-based industrial technology group Rolls-Royce has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Estonian company Fermi Energia. The purpose of the MoU is to study the potential to deploy small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) in the Baltic country. All aspects of such a deployment, including cooling, economics, emergency planning, grid suitability, human resources, licensing feasibility and the supply chain, will be covered in the study. Rolls-Royce leads a consortium of companies and UK research centres, known as UKSMR, which is designing an SMR small nuclear power plant that would be constructed from standardised components manufactured in factories, using advanced manufacturing processes. This approach would drive down costs and rapidly speed up construction times, as the SMR and its associated plant would be delivered to the construction site in modular and component form and there assembled under a weatherproof canopy.
