About

About the design

U-Battery is an advanced/small modular reactor, capable of providing a low-carbon, cost effective, locally embedded and reliable source of power and heat for energy intensive industry and remote locations. It has the potential to drive significant economic benefits through commercialisation and deployment in global markets.

The conceptual design was developed by the Universities of Manchester (UK) and Delft (Netherlands) after the project was initiated in 2008 by Urenco, a global leader in the nuclear industry. It is now being developed by Urenco in partnership with a number of supporting organisations. Find out more about the U-Battery team here.

The strategic goal is to have a first-of-a-kind U-Battery operating by 2028.

About the company

U-Battery Limited was set up to act as the holding company for the U-Battery project, and to enable its subsidiary companies, U-Battery Developments Limited and U-Battery Canada Limited, to take forward the safe design, construction and operation in the UK and Canada, respectively, of a first of a kind (FOAK) micro modular high temperature gas cooled reactor(s), known as U-Battery. U-Battery Limited is executing a twin-track UK/Canada strategy, which is focused around delivering by the late 2020s a UK FOAK U-Battery, potentially at Urenco UK Limited’s nuclear licensed site at Capenhurst in Cheshire, and/or a Canadian FOAK U-Battery potentially at Canadian Nuclear Laboratories’ Chalk River nuclear licensed site at Chalk River in Ontario. U-Battery Limited does not intend to be the operator of a UK FOAK U-Battery or a Canadian FOAK U-Battery.

During the next phase of the project, the U-Battery consortium will look to enhance capability and capacity, by bringing in additional engineering and technical partners, and investors to accelerate project delivery.

U-Battery is a member of the Canadian Nuclear Association and Organization of Canadian Nuclear Industries, and Urenco is a member of the World Nuclear Association, Nuclear Industry Association, US Nuclear Industry Counsel, Northern Nuclear Alliance, North West Nuclear Arc and Wales Nuclear Forum.

U-Battery is also engaging with a number of universities as part of the team’s commitment to science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) education. These have recently included Ontario Tech University.

Why U-Battery?

Affordable: Factory manufacturing process. By the fourth-of-a-kind unit, U-Battery’s estimated capital cost will be £40-£70 million ($66-$115 million CAD). In the markets and applications intended, it will be competitive or leading in the cost of heat and power.

Flexible: U-Batteries can be deployed locally to demand, eliminating grid and infrastructure costs.

Simple construction: Adaptable configuration to meet local needs as it can be installed above or below ground level, in single or in multiple units.

Inherently safe: The reactor size and design delivers inherent safety. It is gas cooled (helium in primary circuit and nitrogen in secondary circuit) and utilises high integrity TRISO fuel.

Beneficial to local economies: Facilitates hundreds of direct jobs and thousands of indirect jobs. £2.8 billion ($4.6 billion CAD) direct gross value added and £1.8 billion ($3.1 billion CAD) indirect gross value added.

Heat and power generation: 10MWt thermal that can be delivered in a co-generation configuration with up to 4MW electricity (MWe) and 710° process heat.

Low-carbon: An alternative to other micro fossil fuel based energy sources, benefiting the environment and enabling a low carbon economy.

Complementary: It complements large and small nuclear reactor models.

Adaptable: Embedded resource, suitable for off-grid locations, can be used as a back-up energy supply and has potential linkage to energy storage systems.