Small Modular Reactors: Rolls-Royce SMR, GDA & Wylfa

▸ Nuclear engineers know reactors. This course teaches the one that is actually being built.The Rolls-Royce SMR is the most advanced small modular reactor programme in Europe — at the final stage of Generic Design Assessment, with a signed contract with Great British Energy – Nuclear, a confirmed site at Wylfa, and a Final Investment Decision targeted for 2029. It is no longer a concept. It is a programme.Yet most engineers working in or around the UK energy sector have never had a structured technical explanation of what the Rolls-Royce SMR actually is, how it works, why it costs what it costs, how it is regulated, and what has to happen before concrete is poured at Wylfa.This course fills that gap.▸ The design deep dive is the coreYou will walk through the 470 MWe pressurised water reactor component by component — the primary circuit, pressuriser and steam generators, the reactor core with fuel and control rods, containment and passive safety systems, and the Yokogawa digital I C — using the published plant layout and GDA documentation as reference. Including a fully annotated design walkthrough.▸ Course structure — 42 lectures across 7 sections, plus examsWhy SMRs? — the energy trilemma, why conventional large nuclear stalled, the SMR proposition, and Rolls-Royce SMR as a company and a missionNuclear Physics Essentials — binding energy, fission and criticality, moderation and why light water, uranium fuel and enrichment, the Rankine cycle, and a worked thermal-to-electrical efficiency calculationThe Rolls-Royce SMR Design — submarine heritage, PWR fundamentals, the reactor core, containment and passive safety, what 470 MWe means in context, digital I C, and an annotated plant layout walkthroughThe Factory-Built Revolution — why traditional nuclear construction fails on