Jacobs picked for SMR planning: site development implications for engineers
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan
First reported on The Construction Index
30 Second Briefing
Great British Energy – Nuclear has appointed Jacobs, supported by planning consultancy Quod, to deliver planning and consenting services for small modular reactor (SMR) projects in the UK. Initial work will concentrate on new nuclear development at the Gwyndod site (formerly Wylfa Newydd) and Oldbury-on-Severn, covering strategic land-use planning, consent strategy and leadership of approvals. Scope includes statutory stakeholder engagement plus socio-economic, traffic and transport assessments, signalling early demand for geotechnical, infrastructure and access studies around these priority SMR locations.
Technical Brief
- Traffic and transport assessments will drive early haul-road, abnormal load routing and construction logistics concepts.
Our Take
Jacobs’ SMR planning role at Gwyndod, Wylfa Newydd and Oldbury-on-Severn comes on top of multiple recent UK infrastructure commissions in our database, including National Highways design work and the Whitesands flood scheme, signalling that its UK-based nuclear planning will be backed by a very active local delivery team across transport and flood assets.
With Great British Energy – Nuclear involved and sites like Wylfa Newydd and Oldbury-on-Severn already long-discussed for new nuclear, this planning work is likely to lean heavily on Jacobs’ recent feasibility and resilience studies for Yorkshire Water and Singapore’s PUB, where long-term system reliability and regulatory scrutiny are similarly central.
Across the 916 Infrastructure stories in our coverage, Jacobs appears frequently as a multidisciplinary designer and programme manager, so its selection here suggests SMR deployment in the United Kingdom may be framed as a national infrastructure programme rather than a stand-alone power project, affecting how interfaces with roads, flood defences and regional planning are handled.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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