British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has expressed his support for close cooperation with the United States on small modular nuclear reactors. “The closer we can work together in this area, the better,” Starmer said during a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at his Scottish golf resort. Trump appeared open to the idea. “We’re doing more and more small, and small is interesting,” he told reporters in Turnberry.
The U.S. president explained that so-called SMRs (Small Modular Reactors) could be associated with significantly lower investment costs. The U.S. would evaluate the option. Last month, the British government selected the national industrial group Rolls-Royce to build the country’s first SMR. It pledged £2.5 billion (about €2.88 billion) to boost development.
Trump commented that the company is initially building a small, very simple, and very safe plant. If more energy is needed, another plant can simply be added instead of launching a multi-billion-dollar project. Siemens May Also Benefit Siemens Energy may also benefit from this development. The energy technology group signed an agreement with Rolls-Royce in February to develop mini nuclear power plants.
According to previous reports, the goal of this partnership is for Siemens Energy to become the exclusive supplier of the "Turbine Island"—the non-nuclear part of the power plant. This includes steam turbines, generators, and other auxiliary systems for the modular Generation 3+ nuclear plants planned by the British manufacturer. A final contract with all specifications is expected to be signed by the end of 2025.
Nuclear Power to Support AI Data Centers Due to the massive energy demands of artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, tech companies—especially cloud service providers—are urgently seeking additional energy sources. As a result, some are turning to nuclear power, which produces virtually no greenhouse gas emissions. SMRs are pre-assembled in factories and are said to be cheaper than conventional nuclear power plants.
Critics, however, argue that costs remain too high relative to the benefits. Furthermore, the U.S. still lacks a final repository for radioactive waste. To date, there is not a single operational SMR in the U.S. The company NuScale, which so far is the only one with a construction permit for such reactors, discontinued a pilot project last year due to rising costs, among other reasons. Nevertheless, some U.S. tech companies are betting on new nuclear reactors in the future. These include Alphabet subsidiary Google and Amazon. According to estimates by Goldman Sachs, electricity consumption by U.S. data centers is expected to nearly triple between 2023 and 2030, likely requiring around 47 gigawatts of new generation capacity.
