Manchester-based startup Nuclear Turbines has emerged from stealth with £15 million in funding to develop compact reactors it claims could bring the cost of nuclear power below fossil fuels.
The company, spun out of BAE Systems through its Launchpad initiative, is taking a different approach to the small modular reactor (SMR) market by ditching much of the steam infrastructure used in conventional nuclear plants. Instead, its reactor is being designed to work with high-temperature turbine technology more commonly associated with jet engines and gas-fired power stations.
Nuclear Turbines says the resulting system should be smaller and cheaper to build, making it practical to install directly at energy-hungry industrial sites, including factories and data centres.
The company claims a unit could ultimately generate electricity at one-fifth of the cost of today’s nuclear plants and supply industrial customers at around a tenth of current electricity prices. Those figures remain targets, however, with the reactor still under development.
The funding round was led by IQ Capital, with Rhapsody Venture Partners, Zero Carbon Capital and Empirical Ventures also participating. Nuclear Turbines said the cash will go towards validating its reactor design, building large-scale test rigs, expanding its workforce and preparing to manufacture its first fuel elements.
The company was founded by former BAE Systems principal engineer Jeremy Owston and University of Manchester nuclear engineer Professor Tim Abram, working with Empirical Ventures’ venture studio.
“The nuclear industry has always designed reactors first, then figured out what to do with the heat. We flipped this script: we started with the cheapest way to generate power and designed a reactor to fit,” Owston said. “If we’re serious about reindustrialising while meeting climate goals, we need energy that’s clean and cheap. We’ve created the only tech that solves both, from the UK.”
The launch comes as Britain attempts to revive its nuclear industry while tackling some of the highest industrial electricity costs among major economies. The government has identified nuclear as a source of secure, dispatchable low-carbon power, while recent regulatory reforms have sought to make it easier to get new reactor technologies off the drawing board.
Nuclear Turbines is also appointing former Centrica strategy director Lauren Dickerson as chief commercial and strategy officer as it moves towards the next stage of development.
David Ewing, BAE Systems’ head of technology commercialisation, said the spin-out demonstrated the potential for defence engineering expertise to be applied to “critical national challenges,” including UK growth, industrial resilience and energy security.
