The small modular reactors (SMRs) proposed by Holtec and its rivals have been hailed as a potential breakthrough for nuclear power, as they could bring down both the cost of building plants and the time needed to construct them.
Their “modules” will be mass-produced in factories and then transported to sites, where workers will then effectively click the pieces together.
Holtec is putting forward its SMR-300 technology and has promised to manufacture at least 70pc of the components at a factory in South Yorkshire.
The Florida-based business already supplies nuclear waste containers to UK power plant operator EDF. With further demand expected from the Hinkley Point C plant in future, it is now poised to set up a dedicated factory here.
Alongside this, Holtec hopes to secure future work from the Ministry of Defence to help decommission Britain’s retired fleet of nuclear-powered submarines, none of which have ever been fully disposed of.
Though it has yet to confirm a specific location, the company has committed to investing at least £325m in its South Yorkshire site and says this would increase to £1.5bn if it wins the GBN competition, potentially creating up to 3,000 highly skilled jobs.
To secure victory, it will have to see off rival bids from domestic champion Rolls-Royce and American giants GE-Hitachi and Westinghouse.
There is also some uncertainty about how strong the Labour Government’s commitment to nuclear power is and how big its ambition will be.
Last month, The Telegraph reported that Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, had asked GBN to review the official target to reach 24 gigawatts of nuclear capacity by 2050.
“They’re clearly committed to clean energy,” said Mr Springman, “But I’m curious to see what proportion of nuclear energy they want in the energy mix. I think that will be an important tell – and I don’t think anyone really knows yet where they’re going to fall.”
Britain’s hesitancy around nuclear policy is not shared by some of its allies. Central and Eastern European countries such as the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary enthusiastically courted the likes of Holtec to reduce their dependence on Russian gas and coal.
In the US, a string of nuclear companies are signing deals with the likes of Microsoft, Google and Amazon to supply power for huge data centres that will power new artificial intelligence software.
Tufan Erginbilgic, the chief executive of Rolls-Royce, which has signed its first SMR order with the Czech government, recently warned that the UK risked losing “first mover advantage” if ministers kept dragging their feet.