Report claims north of England could become a nuclear leader

Commissioned by the Dalton Nuclear Institute, the report highlights the opportunity for the government to invest in the vast potential of the region to meet the demands of the UK’s nuclear new-build programme and use this as a springboard for providing goods and services to the £300bn global nuclear sector.

Prof Peter Storey, director of the Dalton Training Centre, said: ‘The UK government and nuclear industry are faced with a choice — to do nothing and possibly watch the UK nuclear supply chain lose business and economic growth opportunities to overseas-based firms, or to develop a national policy to coordinate the development of UK nuclear supply chain and position UK-based businesses for economic growth in the UK and overseas markets.

‘This report makes it clear that commercial opportunities do exist. With a national policy that is coordinated with the nuclear industry, these opportunities can be realised.’

The report, recently completed for the Northern Way Development Agency, provides a comprehensive assessment of how northern England, with its established nuclear excellence in heavy component manufacturing, consultancy and maintenance services, operation and world-class research and development, is ideally placed to capitalise on civil nuclear new build.

International markets

The global market for nuclear new build is estimated at more than £800bn over the next 20 to 30 years. The UK nuclear new-build programme is estimated at £40bn, with the demand potential to support the rebalancing of the UK economy.

The report claims investment in northern England would create at least 10,000 jobs and secure many others in manufacturing and other professional services at a time when there are cutbacks in other sectors.  

The existing world supply chains of the very largest components — such as pressure vessels — lack resilience, with supply concentrated across two main players: France and Japan. With the right level of investment this presents an opportunity for the UK, the report claims.

The report also argues that strategic leadership and coordination are both needed to exploit commercial opportunities and calls for a ‘Nuclear Cluster’ to be formed in the north in the same way that has proved successful in developing collaborative networks of companies in the process industries and in aerospace.

Fukushima

As the study coincided with the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan in March, the authors felt it was important to incorporate the key findings from the event to show how they may impinge upon this global nuclear renaissance and hence the potential impact they may have with respect to the UK’s own nuclear-build programme.

Despite the repercussions from Fukushima, the nuclear new-build renaissance continues in countries such as China, India and the UK with 60 reactors under construction, 155 planned and a further 338 proposed. Nuclear energy is being backed in many countries to provide low-carbon energy solutions, energy independence, security of supply and protection against price volatility from fossil fuels.

The authors argue that the UK nuclear supply chain needs to be developed within the next 18 months, so that companies are in a position to compete and win business at the start of the UK new-build programme.