An international energy firm has visited Tees Valley after the area was named in the final four to be the location for a Small Modular Reactor factory.

Tees Valley has been shortlisted by Holtec Britain alongside West Midlands, Cumbria, and South Yorkshire as a potential site for a manufacturing facility with the potential to create thousands of jobs.

Leaders from the company visited Teesside International Airport, Teesworks and met Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen.

The chosen location will benefit from an initial £1.5billion investment, and it is anticipated the facility would also add £1.5billion to the local economy over 15 years.

Construction is forecast to create around 3,600 direct jobs with a further 400 manufacturing jobs when the factory begins operations.

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Reactors would be built at the factory and then deployed in the UK, Europe and the Middle East.

It is expected that the site will be used to produce two to four reactors per year, valued at £1-2bn each. The factory site itself will not deal with any nuclear fuel.

Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen said: “It was a real pleasure to speak to Holtec and show how much we have to offer.

“We’re truly at the forefront of clean energy technology across Teesside, Darlington and Hartlepool – and we have all the ingredients a place could need to host Small Modular Reactor technology.

“We’ve got road, rail, river and sea links, a huge knowledge base in engineering and energy generation and benefits our Freeport brings. We’re poised to be a powerhouse in green energy production and manufacturing on a global stage.”

Holtec’s Senior Adviser in the UK, Professor Dame Julia King FRS FREng, Baroness Brown of Cambridge said: “On behalf of Holtec, I extend our gratitude to Mayor Ben Houchen and Tees Valley Combined Authority for their gracious hospitality during our visit to their proposed locations for our UK SMR factory.

“My colleagues and I were highly impressed by the variety of different sites available and the team’s enthusiasm for attracting high-quality jobs and investment to their area.

“The region’s record delivering clean energy technology fills us with confidence as we move forward with our assessment of the shortlisted bids. We will come to a decision in due course.

“Holtec’s new UK SMR factory, wherever it is located, will be transformative - opening a new export market worth billions and generating highly skilled, unionised jobs during both its construction and operational phase for decades to come.”

This is the third project where Teesside has reached a shortlist of SMR sites – showing the region is a burgeoning centre for the technology.

The scheme will see a final decision on its location later this year.