UK “risks losing” nuclear industry
2 Jun 2014
Better government support is needed to reinvigorate the UK nuclear supply chain, says think-tank report.
The UK is currently at risk of losing its £4 billion-a-year nuclear industry because new plant projects are going to foreign companies instead of domestic firms, a report published by the cross-party think tank Civitas says.
According to the report, firms such as EDF, Hitachi and Toshiba, who are intending to build three new nuclear projects in the UK in the coming years, will see the most benefit from a renaissance in project builds within the UK nuclear industry.
Without an additional market, the UK’s supply chain may not be able to participate fully in the nuclear renaissance
Penultimate Power MD Candida Whitmill
That is unless the government intervenes to ensure domestic firms are a part of the UK’s projects to rebuild the country’s generating capacity.
The report, “Use it or Lose it”, calls for a programme of government support for a new line of smaller reactors which are quicker to build and could be manufactured largely in the UK.
Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) - defined as reactors of less than 300MW - could provide an attractive alternative to the projects currently planned, the report finds.
Managing director of Penultimate Power UK Candida Whitmill said: “Such a plan would help safeguard UK nuclear expertise built up over 60 years and which has an estimated annual turnover of £4 billion.
“Outsourcing nuclear power projects that the UK will be committed to for the next 60 years must be handled carefully if our indigenous industry is not to be diminished. International investment is welcome, if in collaboration with UK businesses.”
According to Whitmill, the UK government has two options: let the UK become a host nation where other nations can springboard their global nuclear ambitions and lose our own nuclear capability; or choose to let the start of a new-build programme of nuclear power reignite the UK’s nuclear supply chain, expand our fuel cycle facilities and showcase our world-class research and development capability.
“Supporting a programme to bring smaller, affordable, secure, small modular reactors to UK-based commercialisation could do just that,” she said.
The report goes on to suggest that SMRs are being pursued by several countries keen to have access to secure low-carbon energy without the capital costs and uncertain timescales that can affect larger nuclear plants.
For Whitmill, the UK nuclear industry faces an uncertain future which is being dominated by more established supply chains.
“Without an additional, more accessible market, the UK’s supply chain may not be able to participate fully in the nuclear renaissance and risks being left behind; a scenario that the government, which has woken up to the value of an advanced manufacturing sector, is surely keen to avoid,” said Whitmill.
