Cottam - Data Centre
Posted: 22nd September 2025
The Trent Valley was once a heartland of Britain’s coal-fired power
industry. Now it could become the UK’s answer to Silicon Valley under £11
billion plans to build Britain’s first nuclear-powered data centre. Small
modular reactors (SMRs) would power the unit at Cottam, Nottinghamshire,
which could open in seven years. The move, announced last week, is separate
from the SMRs planned by Rolls-Royce for the National Grid, which are set
to start operating in the mid-2030s. Data centres are vital to the
artificial intelligence (AI) revolution but need a lot of energy to power
them and usually huge quantities of cooling water too. Both are in short
supply in the UK. On energy, experts have questioned whether the National
Grid will be able to cope with the forecast leap in demand. One data centre
training AI models can use 1.5 gigawatts of electricity – enough to power
750,000 homes, or a city the size of Birmingham. It is also nearly equal to
the 1.6GW used by the 500 or so data centres already up and running in
Britain. And that figure could more than double under schemes already in
development. What’s unique in the taxpayer-backed Cottam plan – which was
among a raft of UK-US technology deals totalling £131 billion announced
during President Trump’s state visit – is that it doesn’t need a big supply
of water. A source said it ‘would use a closed loop cooling system that
recirculates water’. Until 2019, Cottam was home to one of several
coal-fired power stations on the River Trent – and has been chosen for its
National Grid connection. US firm Holtec, with EDF and real estate partner
Tritax Management – which will find a tenant for the data centre – aims to
have reactors ‘operational’ by 2032. Dr Rick Springman, head of Holtec’s
clean energy unit, said: ‘We will help the UK seize a leadership position
in advanced nuclear deployment and the AI race.’ Gareth Thomas, a UK-based
director of Holtec, revealed ‘a number of SMRs’ may be built at Cottam with
a ‘target’ completion date of 2032. Cottam’s SMRs, based on a design being
developed for a site in Michigan, aim to produce 1.5GW, with unused
electricity sold to the National Grid.
This is Money 20th Sept 2025
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-15117145/Race-build-Britains-nuclear-powered-data-centre.html