According to Reuters, the British government already asked its nuclear regulator to start the approval process in March, following the funding of Rolls-Royce's project with 546 million USD in November, last year.

If approved, this should be the country's first SMR type reactor.

Policymakers hope that the new SMR reactor will allow to cut carbon emissions and allow for fossil-fuels independence.

Paul Stein said that "the process has been kicked off, and will likely be complete in the middle of 2024. We are trying to work with the UK Government, and others to get going now placing orders, so we can get power on grid by 2029."

Each 470 megawatt SMR unit costs around 2.3 billion dollars to produce and will be built on around 4 hectares of land.

Compared to traditional reactors, SMRs are cheaper and quicker to build and have the advantage of being deployable by ships and aircraft.

Because they are modular, SMRs can be transported by containers from the factory and be installed fairly quickly on any proposed site.