Jacobs to carry out environmental assessments for UK's Oldbury site

Simon Roddy, Great British Energy - Nuclear CEO, said: "As part of our role to position Oldbury for nuclear development, it's important we continue to deepen our understanding of the site with various packages of work, such as ground investigations and archaeological surveys. I'm pleased to welcome Jacobs and their partners to the team to better our knowledge of Oldbury through environmental assessments, which will be key to informing future planning decisions."

Jacobs said that its work, with a multidisciplinary team including AtkinsRéalis and AECOM, would cover terrestrial and marine environments, environmental assessments, Habitats Regulations Assessment and "associated activities to inform future potential planning, design and permitting decisions".

Richard Sanderson, Jacobs Executive Vice President, said: "Strengthening the UK's energy security and advancing lower-carbon power requires new civil nuclear development at pace. Jacobs has supported some of the most complex nuclear programmes in the UK and globally, working across the full lifecycle from early development through delivery. We bring that experience to Great British Energy – Nuclear at Oldbury, helping lay the environmental foundations needed to support long-term project success."

Background

The UK government aims to grow nuclear energy capacity to 24 GW by 2050, with both gigawatt and small modular reactors (SMRs) key parts of the strategy. An agreement to buy the Hitachi-owned sites for new nuclear at Wylfa in north Wales and Oldbury-on-Severn in southwest England was reached in 2024. Wylfa has since been selected to host the UK's first small modular reactor plant.

The Oldbury site, which is on the banks of the River Severn north of Bristol in south west England, is alongside a Magnox plant where two units ran from 1967 and 1968 to 2011 and 2012 respectively. It has been previously earmarked as a potential site for three AP1000s, for two EPRs and two or three UK Advanced Boiling Water Reactors. It has also been judged suitable for small modular reactors.

Jacobs, headquartered in Dallas, Texas, in the US, employs more than 6,000 people in the UK operating from 15 offices and 35 additional sites. It is involved in existing UK nuclear power projects at Hinkley Point C, Sizewell C and at Sellafield.