Miniature nuclear power plants could help solve Britain's looming power crunch, rather than the delayed $24 billion Hinkley project, companies developing the technology say.

Small modular reactors (SMRs) using current or new technology would be able to produce around a tenth of the electricity created by large-scale projects such as Hinkley.

The modular plants, still under development, would be made in factories, with parts small enough to be transported on trucks and barges to sites where they could be assembled in six to 12 months — a tenth of the time it takes to build some larger plants.