According to a company press release, Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc raised $617 million to fund "the next generation of low cost, low carbon nuclear power technology."

Rolls-Royce Group, BNF Resources UK Limited, and Exelon Generation Limited will develop small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) that will allow the country to meet net-zero commitments. SMRs will be built in the UK and open for export to customers worldwide. 

With every passing week, our core thesis set here last December (see "Uranium Stocks Soar: Is This The Beginning Of The Next ESG Craze") is that nuclear would be widely embraced as a net-zero enabling technology for power grids.

Warren East, the Rolls-Royce CEO, adds, "the SMR program is one of the ways that Rolls-Royce is meeting the need to ensure the UK continues to develop innovative ways to tackle the global threat of climate change.

"With the Rolls-Royce SMR technology, we have developed a clean energy solution which can deliver cost-competitive and scalable net-zero power for multiple applications from grid and industrial electricity production to hydrogen and synthetic fuel manufacturing," East said. 

SMRs are a much cheaper solution than big nuclear power plants that have been in use for more than half a century. Nuclear power will be at the heart of Britain's strategy to reach net-zero carbon emissions in the coming decades, along with the rest of the world.