Siemens Energy to make Rolls-Royce SMR turbine parts in Newcastle

Siemens Energy will manufacture key steam-turbine components for the first three Rolls-Royce small modular reactors at its CA Parsons Works in Newcastle. The work is expected to support more than 550 jobs in the city.

The components will include high-pressure turbines and valve casings for the Gwyndod Power Station project at Wylfa on Anglesey.

Rolls-Royce SMR and Siemens Energy said the Newcastle facility is also planned to become Siemens Energy's service hub for key components used across the future UK fleet. The companies said such components will be produced for a small modular reactor in Europe for the first time.

The immediate order gives the North East a role in the UK's first small modular reactor programme.

Sir Charles Parsons developed the first successful steam-turbine generator in 1884 and founded C.A. Parsons and Company in Newcastle in 1889. The site supplied the steam turbine for Calder Hall, the first commercial nuclear power station in the world, which began generating electricity in 1956.

In 1967, Parsons designed and built the 660-megawatt turbine-generators for Drax, the first UK power station to commission units of that size.

Parsons became part of Siemens in 1997, and Siemens has continued to operate a global service business for Parsons and Siemens generators and turbines from Newcastle.

The Newcastle facility will work on the non-nuclear part of the power station, known as the power island. The turbine converts steam produced by the reactor into mechanical energy, which then drives a generator to produce electricity.

Siemens Energy agreed to work with Rolls-Royce SMR in February 2025 as the exclusive supplier of turbines, generators and related equipment for its planned Generation III+ modular reactors. The turbine design is based on an existing Siemens Energy solution rather than a new reactor technology.

Rolls-Royce SMR has since announced projects in Czechia and Sweden. That gives the proposed Newcastle service hub a potential export dimension, although Rolls-Royce SMR and Siemens Energy have only identified the first three Gwyndod units as confirmed Newcastle manufacturing work.

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the investment would support more than 550 jobs in Newcastle.

Neither the government nor Rolls-Royce SMR specified how many of those roles were existing positions being sustained in Newcastle and how many would be new. Rolls-Royce SMR and Siemens Energy did not disclose the value of the contract or the Newcastle investment, the manufacturing start date or the expected volume of components.

Those details will determine how much of the economic benefit is a one-off order and how much becomes sustained work for the Newcastle site and its suppliers.

The wider Gwyndod project has moved beyond the technology-selection stage. Great British Energy - Nuclear signed a contract with Rolls-Royce SMR in April 2026 to begin design activities for three reactors and allow critical components to be ordered from the supply chain.

The project is still subject to further design and regulatory work. The Office for Nuclear Regulation says the Rolls-Royce SMR design remains in the third stage of its generic design assessment.

Great British Energy - Nuclear says the three reactors will provide at least 1.4 gigawatts of low-carbon generating capacity. Its June 2026 update said nearly £900 million of contracts had been awarded across the programme, with more than 70 per cent going to UK-registered companies.

The Environment Agency says the public and stakeholder consultation on the environmental case is due to launch in February 2027.