Siemens Energy to supply Rolls-Royce with equipment for small nuclear reactors

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Siemens Energy on Friday said it has entered a partnership that is expected to make the German group the exclusive supplier of conventional technology for future small modular nuclear reactors (SMR) to be built by Rolls-Royce SMR.

Under the agreement, to be finalised by end-2025, Siemens Energy would supply steam turbines, generators and "other auxiliary systems" for Rolls-Royce SMR's planned Generation 3+ modular nuclear power plants, it said.

So-called SMRs are being developed by global nuclear energy suppliers to produce power plant technology that is easily replicable, faster and cheaper to deploy than traditional large-scale plants.

"We are currently experiencing a global renaissance of nuclear energy," Siemens Energy board member Karim Amin said.

"Numerous countries are turning to nuclear technology to produce low-emission electricity, and small modular reactors will play a key role in this."

Rolls-Royce SMR -- which is majority owned by Rolls-Royce while Qatar, Constellation Energy and investor BNF Resources hold minority stakes -- is one of the companies shortlisted by Britain to develop SMRs.

Czech electricity producer CEZ in October said it would take a minority stake in Rolls-Royce SMR, whose reactors can achieve output of up to 470 megawatts, enough to power around 1.1 million households.

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz, editing by Rachel More)