Industry Link – Autumn 2020

MAGAZINE OF THE UK NUCLEAR INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION AUTUMN / 2020

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NIRAB Net Zero report 2020 12

MOORSIDE CLEAN ENERGY PARK 16 NUCLEAR FOR NET ZERO

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Reflections on Hunterston B A NEW REGULATORY APPROACH FOR SMRS

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James Fisher Nuclear

Simply The Right Solution A world class project and technical integrator for the nuclear industry.

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UK reactor segmentation

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With autumn comes a familiar feeling that change is afoot. We are seeing the world adapt to a new normal, and some of us are even beginning to live out a semblance of our pre-pandemic lives, if only for a few days a week, as we head back into the workplace.

Here at the NIA, we welcomed our new Director of Policy and External Affairs, Lincoln Hill, who is working hard to drive home the message that nuclear can help the UK answer two of its most pressing needs: reaching Net Zero and rebuilding the economy.

Not long after we released the Nuclear Roadmap, which set out the potential contributions nuclear can make to our new national priorities and the steps required to deliver them, it was announced that Hunterson will restart but be decommissioned for January 2022. It was a clear reminder both of the extraordinary contribution that the nuclear industry has made to the UK, and the urgency of investing in new nuclear capacity to hit Net Zero.

The pressure for solutions is building as the government works out the Energy White Paper—and so, this autumn, we are doubling down on the message that nuclear can provide secure, reliable and always available low carbon power, and generate good jobs across the country.

This issue explores nuclear’s vast potential: you will read about one company’s mission to decarbonise the UK’s heat, power and transport network; the region which is earning a reputation as “the centre of Nuclear Excellence;” the implications of the Hunterson B announcement; and the much-anticipated publication of our annual Jobs Map. Whether you are enjoying this copy from your couch or the office, I hope it serves as a reminder that the work you do is critical to a more prosperous and greener UK.

Hartley Butler George, Editor

IN THIS ISSUE...

WHY WE NEED AI TO HELP US WITH PAGE 18 NUCLEAR DOCUMENTS

IN VIEW

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FOCUSED ON GROWING IN NUCLEAR MARKET PAGE 24

IN CONVERSATION...

TOM JONES

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Nuclear for Net Zero: Reflections on Hunterston B BY. TOM GREATREX

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At the end of August, EDF announced that it had received approval to restart Reactor 3 at Hunterston B, which has since resumed generation, and that, subject to regulatory approval, it intended to restart Reactor 4 in mid-September. EDF also announced that the station would move into the decommissioning phase by 7 January 2022.

The news that Hunterston B would be able to restart generation provided a welcome boost to emissions-free power, as well as a stark reminder of the urgency of investing in new nuclear power capacity.

Hunterston has been a significant source of low-carbon power for Scotland, and across the UK. That one power station has provided low carbon power whatever the weather and over its lifetime has generated the equivalent of eight years of total power demand in Scotland, saving more than 100 million tonnes of carbon.

As EDF has said, Hunterston has far exceeded its original remit, and “we owe all those that designed, built, commissioned and operate the station a huge debt of gratitude.” It is an eloquent testament to the ingenuity of British science and engineering that the station has lasted 45 years, and evidence of the enormous contribution this industry has made.

Indeed, nuclear power as a whole has saved the UK more than one billion tonnes of carbon emissions over the lifetime of the industry. That is the equivalent of wiping out all the UK’s carbon emissions from the last three years.

When Hunterston was offline, however, gas filled the gap.

Emissions in Scotland rose. Scotland missed its emissions reduction targets. We witnessed what other countries have seen: when nuclear power goes offline, burning fossil fuels to generate power fills the gap. Emissions rise, and the prospect of a Net Zero future fades away.

All but one of our current nuclear fleet will reach the end of their generating lives this decade. That represents more than

7 GW of always available low-carbon capacity that will go. As things stand, that will burning more gas, and as we have seen this August, even coal when the weather is atypical, which adds up to millions more tonnes of carbon.

We need then to invest now in the new generation of stations to underpin the UK’s net zero ambitions, while preserving world-class expertise in our home grown supply chain. As the Committee on Climate Change has said, the UK needs to generate four times as much clean power by 2050 to achieve a deep decarbonisation, covering transport and building heat, as well as electricity generation.

The CCC said that 38% of that power should come from firm sources. Nuclear power is the only proven, commercially viable source of low carbon firm power in the UK. We need a sense of purpose and an urgent application to getting low carbon generating capacity built – without that, net zero is unachievable.

Nuclear is essential to this “low regrets” pathway to Net Zero, and also to our future prosperity as a country. The Energy Systems Catapult found that “committing to a further 10GW of new nuclear beyond Hinkley Point C is a low regrets option for the UK as it targets a Net Zero economy”. Large-scale projects like Sizewell C and Bradwell will help meet this need for a firm base of low-carbon power and generate thousands of secure, skilled and well-paid jobs.

Many of our members, including Rolls-Royce, Moltex Energy, U-Battery, Westinghouse, GE Hitachi and NuScale are also driving investment by developing new modular reactor designs. These innovative technologies can unlock further sites for nuclear development and expand the flexibility of nuclear generation.

This is the case that the NIA has been pressing home to Government over recent months and will continue to do so in the weeks ahead: we need nuclear to hit Net Zero, and

to level up the economy. No electricity generation source has saved as much carbon as nuclear has, and no industry generates higher quality, more skilled, and more secure jobs than the nuclear industry. Few can say they are at the cutting edge of research and development, looking into modular reactor designs, fuel cycle innovations and fusion, to name a few.

We can help meet the ambitions the Government has set for our country. Currently, the industry sustains around 60,000 jobs, and is contributing around £6 billion to the UK economy, a sparkling standard of nearly £100,000 per worker.

In our Roadmap published in June, we said that could be 300,000 jobs and £33 billion value added by 2050. The skills we build today on the large-scale projects, can be transferred to other big projects tomorrow, to modular reactor designs, and to fusion technology over the years ahead.

Nuclear can contribute to decarbonisation beyond electricity generation. Our stations will provide low-carbon capacity that we need to power a new transport system of electric vehicles and electrify heating systems. Nuclear power could be a major low-carbon source of hydrogen for home heating or fuel-cell vehicles. Our sites could be used for co-location of battery storage technology.

That is one pathway. The other pathway showed itself a little bit in August: thirteen days in which we burned coal, many days during which gas was more than half of our generation, at times more than 70%. That is not the path we want to choose.

That is why it is vitally important that the UK government’s forthcoming Energy White Paper sets out a clear path to securing new nuclear capacity can be progressed. Without new nuclear power, the UK cannot meet its net zero target. Without nuclear power, we will spurn opportunities for our future. That is why it matters so much.

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U-Battery is on a Mission to Decarbonise the UK’s heat, power and transport networks BY. HARTLEY BUTLER GEORGE

W

hat does it mean for U-Battery to progress to Phase 2 of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s Advanced Modular Reactor (AMR) competition?

Steve Threlfall, General Manager at U-Battery, sees it as an “opportunity to accelerate the pace of development.”

The AMR competition forms part of the Government’s Energy Innovation Portfolio and has awarded U-Battery almost £10 million to conduct design and development work—the next step in bringing new nuclear technology to market.

The funding follows U-Battery’s successful participation in Phase 1 of the AMR competition, which sought to determine the feasibility of, and provide support for, the design and development of AMRs. “The decision is a signal from the Government about the direction of travel, which is creating an ecosystem for microreactors to be developed,” Steve continues. “Of course, it also allows us to consider what the company might look like in the next few years.

We’d like other companies to come and join us on the journey.”

U-Battery’s own journey began at Urenco, a global leader in the nuclear industry, and the Universities of Manchester and Delft, where the original conceptual design for an advanced, small modular reactor was developed.

The reactor has the potential to deliver significant environmental, economic and social benefits, and is capable of providing a low carbon, cost-effective, locally embedded and reliable source of zero-emission power and heat for energy-intensive industries and remote, off-grid locations.

In addition, the system is designed to deliver back-up power to large nuclear reactors, provide solutions for waterscarce areas through desalination and generate hydrogen for hydrogenpowered vehicles.

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In Phase 1 of the AMR competition, U-Battery conducted a feasibility study that made the business, economic and technical case for the deployment of U-Battery in the UK and Canada, where it would be installed in industrial applications, mining sites and remote locations. The study also demonstrated how U-Battery could support the decarbonisation of several of the UK’s critical and strategic heavy industries, such as paper, glass, steel, ceramics, minerals and chemicals.

A key achievement of Phase 1 was to clearly demonstrate to government how U-Battery supported its strategic objectives on climate change, how it could contribute to the UK’s decarbonisation efforts and, in turn, help in delivering net zero.

Phase 1 of the competition saw 50-100 reactor designs from around the world whittled down to 23 applicants. Eight qualifiers progressed into Phase 1, three of whom were authorized to go through to Phase 2.

In Phase 2, U-Battery will use the funding to continue design and development work this year. The long-term objective is the first-of-a-kind (FOAK) deployment of a U-Battery, which is due for completion by 2028.

U-Battery has received additional funding from BEIS to design and build mock-ups of the two main vessels for the reactor and the connecting duct.

The investment was awarded under the ‘Call for Advanced Manufacturing and Materials Phase 2B’, which opened in January 2020.

The next phases of the programme will see U-Battery working to form new commercial partnerships to support the development of the technology.

“There are some companies that have already approached us since the announcement,” Steve explains, “about their interest in coming and joining us in several different ways, but we need to expand the capability as we go into the

following detailed design phase. We’re looking for deeper engagement with supply chain companies. That brings with it a new phase of investment and we are working on what that investment will look like.

“What we’re trying to do in the UK is ensure that the foundation industries have a future, by having a low-carbon heat supply. It’s about the process heat supply, which is really difficult to provide with renewables. You can use the heat directly off the reactor, or through a heat exchanger, but, essentially, directly.

It’s just more efficient than producing electricity off the coast through wind power, transmitting it through the grid and then translating that electricity back into heat. It’s a unique selling point of what U-Battery does in the UK. “As the UK starts to seriously consider the use of hydrogen in our economy, a high-temperature reactor gives you the possibility of an efficient hydrogen production process. There are lots of ideas coming through about what a hydrogen economy might look like, but a U-Battery combined with a copper chloride process, in particular, gives you the chance of distributed generation of hydrogen and avoids the need to build lots and lots of new infrastructure.

“The discussion we’re currently having is how can the UK and Canada collaborate on hydrogen, and synthetic fuels more generally? There’s a need to look for synthetic fuels for a variety of reasons, but particularly aircraft.”

Steve is excited about U-Battery’s immediate future and the chance for AMRs to help decarbonise the UK’s heat, power and transport networks, and he’s aware of the onus on the nuclear sector.

“We’ve got to show that nuclear is affordable. Government is saying: ‘This is an opportunity for nuclear. You’ve got to play your part.’ The opportunity is very, very large and we will continue to strive to meet the challenge.”

MEDIA WATCH NEWS

Concept drawing of U-Battery design

In late June, the NIA was the subject of a piece by the Financial Times: “Nuclear developers press for ‘’prompt’’ decision on new UK plants”. The Forty by 50 Nuclear Roadmap, compiled by the Nuclear Industry Association and industry members of the Nuclear Industry Council, set out the potential contributions nuclear can make to our new national priorities, and the steps required to deliver them— but as the NIA notes in the piece, “concerted action is needed now.”

In late August, the NIA was mentioned in the Guardian. The NIA’s Chief Executive, Tom Greatrex, stressed how a nuclear programme would help create “tens of thousands of secure, skilled and well-paid jobs” while helping to meet the UK’s future electricity demand, which is projected to quadruple in the coming decades.

Also in late August, the NIA provided a statement which ran in City A.M., warning that more investment was crucial to the UK’s Net Zero ambitions: “with Hunterston’s move to decommissioned confirmed for January 2022, the urgency of the need to invest in new capacity to provide secure, reliable and always available low carbon power is clear. “Without new nuclear power, the UK cannot meet its net zero target.”

In early September, NIA’s Chief Executive, Tom Greatrex, was interviewed on BBC Good Morning Scotland. Tom emphasised that nuclear power is essential to the UK hitting Net Zero, providing a firm, reliable source of low-carbon generation.

Steve Threlfall, General Manager at U-Battery

Also in early September, NIA’s Tom Greatrex was interviewed

by BBC Radio 4: in light of the Hunterson news, he discussed how many other countries have turned to fossil fuels in the absence of nuclear. He emphasised the need to replace the fleet to ensure a low carbon future and power that is not reliant on weather.

In August, the BBC broadcast an episode of Powering Britain, focusing on the nuclear industry. It offered an in-depth look at the work our colleagues are doing at Heysham I and Heysham II, showcasing their world-class skills. You can view the episode on iPlayer until 20 September ( https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/ episode/m000lyff/powering-britain-series-1-nuclear ).

Our Chief Executive, Tom Greatrex, appeared on Channel 4 (www.channel4.com/news/plans-to-build-two-new-nuclearpower-stations-in-uk-abandoned) on 16 September to discuss the future of the nuclear industry following the Hitachi decision.

He emphasised that nuclear was essential to hitting net zero.

Tom also pointed out that in August, a warm month good for renewable generation, we burned coal, and often relied on gas for most of our electricity, underscoring the need for firm power for net zero.

The U-Battery fuelling route

2020 | AUTUMN — 5

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Fifth Tianwan unit starts operation Unit 5 of the Tianwan nuclear power plant in China has entered commercial operation, having successfully completed a 168-hour continuous demonstration run. It becomes CNNC’s 22nd reactor in commercial operation.

The 1080 MWe domesticallydesigned ACPR1000 pressurised water reactor achieved first criticality on 27 July and was connected to the electricity grid on 8 August. Since then, the unit has undergone tests at 30%, 50% and 100% of its generating capacity. Tianwan 5 completed the fullpower test-run on 8 September.

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Finnish disposal facility contracts grow Waste management company Posiva announced it signed a “significant” building services agreement at the end of August related to the construction of the used fuel encapsulation plant and repository at the Olkiluoto site.

In July 2019, a consortium signed a contract with Posiva for the construction

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of the final disposal facility. That agreement covered the construction and building services of the disposal facility for the technical facilities and tunnels excavated for the Onkalo repository.

Posiva aims to sign 20 this year, of which less than half have now been concluded. Several contracts will be awarded in the coming months.

It also noted that the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on its procurement programme has so far been moderate, but challenges may lie ahead.

This is especially the case for those procurements where no partner can be found within Finland.

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Poland to invest in new nuclear plants Poland plans to construct six new nuclear power units by 2040 as the country transitions to a clean energy economy and to reduce its share of coal in electricity production to between 37% and 56% in 2030. Last year it accounted for 74% of Polish electricity generation.

The new policy is based on three pillars: a just transition; a zero-emission energy system; and good air quality.

The first unit is to be commissioned in 2033, with five more units to follow by 2040. The investment expected to be required for this is PLN150 billion

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(USD39.7 billion). New jobs created by the country’s nuclear and renewable energy sectors are expected to total 300,000.

By 2040, more than half of installed electricity capacity will be from zeroemission sources, according to the policy.

The implementation of offshore wind power and the start-up of a nuclear power plant will “play a special role” in this process as two strategic new areas and industries for Poland.

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NuScale SMR receives certification approval The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has issued a final safety evaluation report for NuScale’s small modular reactor (SMR).

NRC said NuScale’s completion of the technical review within its original 42-month schedule demonstrates its commitment to “timely” licensing of new, advanced reactor technology.

NuScale said it had spent over USD500 million, and over 2 million labour hours to develop the information needed to prepare its application.

The company also submitted 14 separate Topical Reports in addition to the application - itself over 12,000 pages long - and provided more than 2 million pages of supporting information for NRC audits.

For more details on these and other stories please visit www.world-nuclear-news.org

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BY. HARTLEY BUTLER GEORGE

The numbers are in! The NIA’s annual Jobs Map has typically reflected major developments across the industry, and considering 2020’s massive global changes, nuclear has remained resilient.

Last year showed 59,419 jobs in civil nuclear across the UK, and since that time we’ve seen that number increase slightly to 59,584.

The breakdown by region shows the distribution of jobs across the country: the North West remains the hub of the UK’s nuclear sector, with 24,005 people employed in that region. We see the South West following at 12,476 and Scotland now home to 3,723 nuclear workers.

As of 2015, we began to collate the number of women, graduates and apprentices working in the industry. We are seeing now that 11,354 of employees are female, 1,639 are on an apprenticeship programme and 890 are part of a graduate scheme.

Take a look for yourself, and see what you can find on the Jobs Map online at niauk.org/resources/jobsmap-2020. You can download the PDF as well and share with colleagues.

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A new regulatory approach for SMRs BY. SIMON STUTTAFORD / CASTLETOWN LAW

Interest is growing in Small Modular Reactors’ (SMRs) potential role as a complement to the spectrum of existing low carbon energy sources.

The UK is part of the international race for the design and production of SMRs. Those involved are looking for government support and an appropriate regulatory framework to stimulate their development. The UK Government has shown some signs of supporting the build of SMRs and this article takes a look at what is needed by way of a regulatory framework to support construction and development in the UK, with a particular focus on the key stage of Licensing (and Pre-Licensing).

The regulatory processes in the UK: current status and potential for improvement The traditional approach to lifecycle stages for a nuclear power plant are set out in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)’s publication SSG-12, “Licensing Process for Nuclear Installations”.

The SMR’s specific features challenge this traditional approach, demanding a number of new lifecycle stages and a difference in approach to Pre-Licensing and Licensing.

Site selection

Cross-section of the Westinghouse SMR design

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Site Selection is currently determined in the UK via the National Policy Statement for Nuclear (EN-6), published in 2011, in conjunction with the Strategic Site Assessment. EN-6 nominated eight sites across the UK as being potentially suitable for the deployment of new nuclear power stations; Hinkley Point, Wylfa, Moorside (originally nominated as Sellafield), Sizewell, Bradwell, Oldbury, Hartlepool and Heysham.

The UK Government is processing a new National Policy Statement applicable to nuclear power plants expected to be deployed after 2025. For SMRs, therefore, as policy stands, they either need to fit under the National Policy Statement criteria and be included on existing sites or alternatively will need to be the beneficiaries of a new approach to allow SMRs on new sites.

It appears that the UK Government strongly favours existing Nuclear Decommissioning Authority licensed sites for the deployment of the first SMRs. This in principle avoids a separate round of siting policy and consultation.

There may be good reasons to build SMRs on existing licensed sites, given the potentially broadened scope of application for SMRs (i.e. remote locations, oil refineries, large factory sites etc).

There is though an opportunity to apply a different approach to site selection like the Early Site Permit (adopted in the US) which allows building on a site at an early stage and can be dealt with separately from the main licensing process.

Pre-Licensing Although the UK operates a one-step licensing process, by which we mean a combined construction and operation licence, it does include some fundamental steps that are dealt with outside of licensing. In contrast the US, for example, operates both a one-step and two-step process, by which we mean a separate construction and operating license.

To start with a Justification decision is required from the UK Government—in practice the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy—whereby the benefits of building a nuclear site outweigh the health detriments of exposing the public to ionising radiation.

Another key pre-licensing step relates to a generic approval for a specific design known as Generic Design Assessment (GDA).

The GDA process in the UK currently entails a four Step process with a typical timescale of three to four years. In some cases this can take closer to five years.

At the end of the process, the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) issues a Design Acceptance Confirmation. Parallel to that process, the Environment Agency runs its own process resulting in a Statement of Design Acceptability.

The ONR has now proposed a more streamlined process consisting of three steps: → Step 1: Initiation (12 months) → Step 2: Fundamental (12 months) → Step 3: Detailed (24 months)

Allowance is made for a 4th step to deal with the resolution of any GDA outstanding issues. The same overall time-period of 4

years for completion is retained. The shift is a longer timescale allowed for Step 1 and a tighter period for Steps 2 and 3. The focus is on the early engagement between Requesting Parties and the ONR, ensuring that the step-wise approach can be maintained to the proposed timescales.

An alternative way of looking at design certification for SMRs is called Module Design Certification. This concept was proposed by the Cooperation in Reactor Design Evaluation and Licensing (CORDEL) Working Group, in its report “Facilitating International Licensing of Small Modular Reactors” (August 2015).

The proposal is that a Design Certificate would be the certification of the SMR reactor module, including the primary safety systems (otherwise referred to as Module Design Certification). The module along with the safety systems would be standardised during the design phase. Once certified, the module’s design (including the primary safety systems) would not need to be reviewed again as a single module. This process then becomes part of the licensing process itself (rather than pre-licensing) and could then be internationally valid or transferrable from the country of origin to another country (this transferability though would only be possible if the licensing requirements of the module and its safety systems do not differ from one country to another).

The advantages of this approach are that a module only needs to be certified once and there is a separation between site approval and design certification. The disadvantage is the limitations imposed to manage design changes over the lifetime of the unit.

Whilst management of design changes over the course of the lifetime of the SMR would need to be managed appropriately, one obvious advantage is that by obtaining a Module Design Certification that is transferrable to other countries—this ensures a more cost-effective means of deployment.

Rendering of the Rolls-Royce UK SMR design

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Licensing To develop an SMR product line that functions well for the UK and that is fully exportable, the key regulatory steps need to be as streamlined, efficient and transparent as possible.

The present UK licensing approach functions on the basis of an “all or nothing” one-step process covering construction, operation and decommissioning. A number of “hard” hold points are also set out, pre-defined in regulations requiring formal consent from the regulator together with “control points” which are proposed by the applicant and included within the licence.

For a number of years, initially driven by work on large nuclear power plants, there have been various initiatives looking at opportunities to standardise and harmonise licensing. In its report, “Facilitating International Licensing of Small Modular Reactors” (August 2015), the World Nuclear Association’s CORDEL working group—produced by its Small Modular Reactors Ad-hoc Group (SMRAG)—stressed the importance of working towards enhancing global harmonisation among countries.

With the new approach, rather than treating design certification as part of pre-licensing, the design certification step would be applied to the reactor module and primary safety system at the same time, on a once and for all basis. The objective is to achieve an internationally transferrable reactor module design certification enabling the construction and operation of multiple identical SMRs on the same site, eliminating the review and approval of each reactor module separately.

Another proposition is the use of a Master Facility Licence (MFL). Modifications that only relate to a reactor module could be designated as such and reviewed as part of the design certification (or design change management programme).

Changes under the MFL would concentrate on safety issues that are common to the whole project. It is proposed that an MFL is issued by the regulatory body authorising specified activities. In addition, for multiple modules an SMR plant would only need to go through the module licensing process once.

SMRAG’s report proposes a sharing approach. It aims to reduce licensing risk, allowing SMRs to be licensed as standard designs globally. It limits the scope of the design certification, separates it from site-specific approvals and operational requirements and reduces differences between countries’ licensing practices. An added benefit is supporting the development of SMRs in new countries.

SMR development and deployment in the UK will only happen if the regulatory and political landscapes are sufficiently favourable. Funding is, of course, essential, but the UK government also needs to state its case loud and clear that it is fully behind SMRs. That, in turn, would most likely boost the public perception on new nuclear and SMRs in particular. According to a 2020 survey (https://www.statista.com/statistics/426157/unitedkingdom-uk-attitudes-towards-nuclear-energy) the UK public is currently largely in support of nuclear.

The UK Government’s published response from the Regulated Asset Base Model Consultation and its long-promised Energy White Paper are eagerly awaited to point the way forward and help to smooth the path for developers and investors alike. But in addition this is a good time to revisit the current regulatory framework to see what can be improved.

This is an abridged form of an article, the full version of which you can find on Castletown Law’s website at: www.castletownlaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/ ARTICLE_SMRs_FULL.pdf

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The NuScale Power SMR design Layout of the U-Battery SMR design

SNAPSHOT

BEIS Digest of UK Energy Statistics 2020 BY. GEORGINA HINES

Low carbon sources of electricity made up a record 54.4% of generation in 2019 – up 1.8% from the year prior, according to the Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy’s (BEIS) annual Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES).

Electricity demand decreased by 2.4% between 2018 and 2019 to 325TWh, as a result of ongoing energy efficiency measures being put in place both industrially and domestically.

In 2019, electricity generation consisted of 17.3% nuclear, 40.6% gas, 9.9% offshore wind, 9.9% onshore wind, 11.5% biofuels, 4% solar and 2.1% coal. Hydro, wastes and oil made up the remainder of generation.

Nuclear’s share of the energy mix dropped 2.2% this year from 19.5% in 2018 due to planned outages and the UK’s decreasing nuclear capacity. The steady contribution of low-carbon electricity was kept level by an increase in renewable output, which increased to 37.1%—the first time they have made up over a third of

total electricity generation. But while coal use dropped to an all-time low of 2.1%, gas increased to 40.6% Nuclear plants continued to have the highest load factor at 62.9% in 2019— load factor is the measure of how intensively a plant has been used—but again, plant outages meant that nuclear’s load factor dropped 9.9% from the previous year. This is compared to an average wind load factor of 32%, 11.2% for solar and 32.6% for hydro.

With the CCC recommending that 38% of a future clean energy mix comes from ‘firm’ power, of which nuclear is the only current commercially viable option, and the predicted electrification of our economy, there is a significant electricity gap that needs to be filled with robust, clean energy sources like nuclear.

The pressure to act has become even more apparent with the recent announcement that Hitachi will withdraw from the Wlyfa Newydd new build project. Action is needed, today.

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2020 | AUTUMN — 11

Achieving Net Zero: The role of Nuclear Energy in Decarbonisation BY. DR PHILIP ROGERS / NUCLEAR INNOVATION AND RESEARCH OFFICE

Figure 1 - The role of nuclear in the deep decarbonisation multiple carbon emitting sectors through the three energy vectors of electricity, heat and hydrogen

In May 2020 the Nuclear Innovation and Research Advisory Board (NIRAB) provided BEIS (Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) with its recommendations for how nuclear energy could cost effectively contribute to achieving Net Zero, and the form of the research and innovation programme that would enable the UK to benefit from the decarbonisation, industrial and economic benefits that nuclear deployment could deliver.

NIRAB’s advice is one source of input considered by BEIS when evaluating options for decarbonising the UK energy system and how any public funding is prioritised to help achieve policy objectives, such as Net Zero. The report is the culmination of two years’ activity by NIRAB and the first report since the Net Zero target was set in July 2019.

It is published at a crucial time when society is increasingly aware of the decarbonisation imperative and national priorities will naturally push proven, low carbon technologies further into the spotlight. Nuclear is one such technology and is of high value to a decarbonised energy system that not only drives decarbonisation but also delivers economic prosperity and high value jobs right across the UK regions.

Achieving Net Zero will require large-scale deployPLANNING A FUTURE NET ZERO ment of all low carbon ENERGY SYSTEM WITHOUT technologies including SIGNIFICANT NUCLEAR ENERGY WOULD BE EXTREMELY HIGH RISK. renewables, carbon capture and storage and nuclear.

It has been estimated that over 60 GW (Ref: Energy Systems Catapult Nuclear for Net Zero Summary Report, June 2020) of new nuclear could be required to deliver the lowest cost Net Zero energy system in 2050.

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NIRAB IS A BOARD OF MORE THAN 40 EXPERTS IN THE FIELD OF NUCLEAR ENERGY AND THE ENERGY SYSTEM, WHO’S REMIT IS TO PROVIDE GOVERNMENT WITH INDEPENDENT ADVICE FOR ITS CONSIDERATION ON HOW NUCLEAR ENERGY COULD CONTRIBUTE TO THE UK’S FUTURE ENERGY MIX, AND THE RESEARCH AND ENABLING INNOVATION ACTIVITIES NECESSARY TO SUPPORT ACHIEVING THAT OPTION.

NIRAB is convinced that cost-competitive new nuclear energy must make a significant contribution to meeting the increased demand for low-carbon energy and that planning a future Net Zero energy system without significant nuclear energy would be extremely high risk. Risk and cost reduction will be key to realising the potential that nuclear has to offer and the Nuclear Cost Drivers work by the Energy Technologies Institute provides a framework for how this can be achieved (Nuclear Cost Drivers Summary Report, Energy Technologies Institute, April 2018).

NIRAB has advised that nuclear energy should be recognised for offering decarbonisation to a wide range of carbon emitting sectors through the three energy vectors of electricity, hydrogen and heat, including delivery of mid-merit, flexible electricity to the national grid (Figure 1). The technologies to enable this are either proven or at demonstration stage.

For electricity alone, it would be prudent to plan for nuclear to provide at least half of the firm low-carbon electricity not provided by renewables and as the only 24/7 low-carbon technology to have been demonstrated at scale, the demand for nuclear may be much greater.

Recognising and exploiting this opportunity would not only enable nuclear energy as a key partner to the large-scale

deployment of renewables NUCLEAR, AS WELL AS BEING A by compensating for their SOURCE OF COST COMPETITIVE intermittency, but also the ELECTRICITY, CAN CONTRIBUTE employment of decarbonTO THE PRODUCTION OF HEAT isation options currently AND HYDROGEN TO DECARBONISE considered highly challenging, A WIDE RANGE OF CARBON EMITTING SECTORS. for example wide scale production of carbon neutral synthetic fuels for transportation.

To realise this opportunity, NIRAB believes there is an urgency to establish and implement a nuclear energy strategy cemented in enduring Government policy and NIRAB’s advice to BEIS for consideration includes:

Nuclear Innovation Programme (NIP) and drives towards demonstration and commercialisation (Figure 1). Wherever possible, these programmes should also seek to optimise UK owned/controlled intellectual property and the development of a competitive UK supply chain. There is also a role for such a programme to maintain the skills and capabilities in nuclear for strategic purposes.

→ Continued roll out of GW scale nuclear to primarily support decarbonisation of electricity with options for clean hydrogen production and direct use of heat.

The recommended budget suggested by NIRAB for public investment in a continued NIP from 2021-2026 is £400 million for research and development and £600 million for Advanced Modular Reactor demonstration, exclusive of any potential investment in a UK SMR. To achieve demonstration of an AMR technology in the period 2030 to 2035 a high level of pubic investment is needed from April 2021 to ignite private sector investment, raise investor interest and confidence and promote international collaboration to leverage UK investment.

Nuclear energy already delivers 20% of UK electricity all day, every day with carbon emissions equivalent to or lower than other low carbon energy options. Through concerted and focussed action against the recommendations offered in the report, NIRAB believes that nuclear energy could have an increasingly important role in the overall energy portfolio, cutting carbon emissions and driving economic prosperity.

The content and production of the NIRAB report has been supported by national experts on nuclear energy and the UK energy system with support from the Nuclear Innovation and Research Office, which acts as secretariat to the main Board. The full report can be downloaded from the NIRAB website at www.nirab.org.uk/our-work/annual-reports.

→ Deployment of a Small Modular Reactor fleet in partnership with industry, with the first commercial operating reactor by 2030 offering further siting flexibility and local energy needs. → Focussed development of Advanced Modular Reactor technology leading to a demonstrator by 2030-35 and commercial deployment thereafter. As a first step, a down selection of the technology most suited to the UK’s energy system needs should be carried out.

In the case of Advanced Modular Reactors, development should focus on systems that can be commercially deployed in time to make a significant contribution to meeting the Net Zero 2050 target. In the view of NIRAB, High Temperature Gas Reactor (HTGR) systems are the most likely to be commercialised in the timescale required and should be used as the baseline for a UK technology down selection.

To support this, NIRAB has recommended that BEIS consider a future publicly funded programme that builds on the previous

RECOMMENDED PUBLIC INVESTMENT, FOR 5-YEAR PERIOD STARTING IN APRIL 2021, OF £400 MILLION FOR RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT AND £600 MILLION FOR DEMONSTRATION, EXCLUSIVE OF ANY POTENTIAL INVESTMENT IN A UK SMR.

Figure 2 - T he Nuclear Innovation Programme funding delivers a wider range of industry needs and acts as a launch pad for commercialisation demonstration and deployment programmes

2020 | AUTUMN — 13

IN VIEW

Peterson and Sellafield Limited agree major logistics contract International energy logistics provider Peterson has announced the award of a four-year logistics contract from Sellafield Limited.

Peterson will manage inbound logistics, warehousing and secure distribution of goods from their Security and Distribution Centre (S&DC) at Lillyhall on behalf of Sellafield Limited. Peterson has been the main operator of the site since March 2016 and has worked closely with Sellafield to develop a number of technologies to improve operational efficiencies in delivering goods including safety and security protocols.

In 2019, Peterson’s track and trace technology, developed in collaboration with Sellafield, enhanced operations and resulted in fuel savings of £75,000 for the wider supply chain and a reduction of over 190,000kg in CO2 emissions. In the past year Peterson has successfully achieved ISO-9001, 45001 and 14001 certifications for their Lillyhall site.

Commenting on the award, Jason Hendry, Regional Director at Peterson, said: “This contract reflects our team’s hard work over the last four years and demonstrates our commitment to the area and the sector.

“We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished to date working alongside the Sellafield team and look ahead to continue delivering a valuable service.”

Andrew Barnes, Senior Buyer from Sellafield, added: “Peterson has been Sellafield’s logistics service provider for the previous four years continually exceeding service and customer requirements. We are thrilled to continue the collaborative relationship delivering benefits such as; increased visibility of inbound logistics, control and coordination of deliveries, reduced commercial vehicles on the roads and cost savings.”

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2020 | AUTUMN — 15

Moorside Clean Energy Park BY. ROB WARD / COPELAND BOROUGH COUNCIL

With ever-increasing focus on the need to decarbonise heat, power and fuels in order to meet the UK’s Net Zero by 2050 target, nuclear new build is back on the cards in the region that refers to itself as the “Centre of Nuclear Excellence”

C

umbrian stakeholders have come together behind the vision of a Clean Energy Park at Moorside, set out in the recently published Cumbria Nuclear Prospectus: Energising the Energy Coast.

This vision describes the intention to build on existing nuclear sector capability within a supportive community in West Cumbria as a place to deploy and test large, small and advanced nuclear technologies in support of decarbonisation pathways for the UK. This has been met by renewed interest in development of the Moorside site by the newly-formed Moorside Consortium, with further interest in deployment of advanced nuclear technologies by the UK SMR consortium, led by former NuGen CEO Tom Samson.

Moorside, which lies to the north side of the Sellafield site, had been earmarked by the NuGeneration (NuGen) consortium to build a nuclear power plant of up to 3.8 GWe gross capacity using Westinghouse AP1000 reactor technology. In 2018 Toshiba announced it was withdrawing from the project, and NuGen was wound up. The site itself returned to Nuclear Decommissioning Authority ownership and remains designated by government for nuclear new build.

June saw the formation of the Moorside Consortium—15 major companies including EDF coming together with trade unions to promote a Clean Energy Hub at the Moorside site in Copeland, adjacent to the Sellafield complex.

This is exciting news for the UK nuclear industry and for the supply chain in advance of expected UK government announcements on financing and the long awaited energy policy framework. But what makes these proposals particularly interesting is the intention to do more than add 3.2 GW of firm low carbon electricity to the grid.

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“ Leading members of the UK’s nuclear industry have come together to work with the community in Cumbria and deliver their vision of a clean energy hub. The Moorside Consortium proposes to build UK EPRs, which can start quickly because the detailed design is approved, followed by SMRs and AMRs. We have a fantastic opportunity, together, to make Cumbria a key player in the hydrogen economy and demonstrate how nuclear can power industry with clean heat and power.”

Julia Pyke, EDF Director of Finance and Economic Regulation The Moorside Clean Energy Hub aims to capitalise on the design, replication and project experience from the Hinkley Point C (HPC) UK EPR reactor design and the follow-on Sizewell C project to develop Moorside. HPC, which is under construction in Somerset in south-west England, has already created 10,000 jobs and generates more than £2 of regional value for every £1 spent. Work on Sizewell C has shown that the UK EPR design can be replicated in different ground conditions, and that the power station can offer low carbon heat as well as electricity.

The Moorside proposals go a step further—by offering to host SMRs and AMRs alongside the UK EPRs so that the UK nuclear industry can explore its full potential to contribute to a clean and resilient energy system in the wake of a global pandemic, and by exploring synergies with offshore wind and emerging technologies, such as green hydrogen and energy storage.

The proposals are centred on the use of UK EPR technology to produce low carbon electricity, but also heat for local domestic and industrial uses. The wider vision for a Clean Energy Park

A highly specialist team working across the nuclear industry.

Our specialist team have held advisory roles, operating companies, new-build developers and those contracting into the industry. We have experience of government roles in both regulation and development in the UK, Turkey, Jordan and Egypt and KSA. Long involvement in NNB and management of operational fleet in the UK means that our specialists expertise includes site licensing, commissioningsite licencing, commissioning and decommissioning, waste materials handling and storage.

New Build 2 Decommissioning 2 Regulatory 2 Dispute Resolution 2 Environmental 2 Advisory Roles 23 Melville Street, Edinburgh | 0131 240 3880 | castletownlaw.com | andrew.renton@castletownlaw.com | simon.stuttaford@castletownlaw.com

includes the deployment of UK SMR and other advanced nuclear technologies in West Cumbria to produce low carbon power, hydrogen or other synthetic e-fuels, creating a Northern trailblazer for the UK’s future low carbon energy systems.

Co-location of these different technologies—in a low carbon energy hub—creates flexibility, where the byproducts from one process can be used to increase the efficiency of another optimised in real-time to deliver the most value to the energy system as a whole. “ I have never let the new nuclear flame stop burning … securing the interest of companies as significant as EDF and Rolls-Royce is a moment to celebrate. Cumbria as a whole has come together to demonstrate what is possible when a local council leads from the front, with industry and the local community to shine a light on our capability, track record and aspirations”.

Trudy Harrison, MP for Copeland This concept has the potential to bring further jobs and economic benefit to the

region, at a time when the reprocessing operations at Sellafield are due to cease.

With the presence of Sellafield nearby and a manufacturing hub in neighbouring Allerdale to the North, there is an existing energy customer base in the region, and the full development of the site could help to attract new energy-intensive industries to Cumbria, supporting the region’s broader ambitions for economic diversification and growth.

The UK EPRs at Moorside would be the fifth and sixth units in the UK programme.

Replication using innovation, modularisation and digitalisation practices developed to maximise learning from preceding projects is already creating time and cost savings between the first and second unit at HPC with further efficiencies expected on the third and fourth units at Sizewell C. This shows how the UK can achieve the Nuclear Sector Deal 30% New Build Cost Reduction commitment.

Approximately two-thirds of the HPC strike price relates to the cost of financing, of which more than half can be seen as a “first-of-a-kind” nuclear construction risk premium. A “next-ofa-kind” project such as Sizewell C and then Moorside would have a reduced risk premium and this can be combined

with a financing arrangement, such as the Regulated Asset Base model, to attract infrastructure investors at a low cost of capital.

This essentially results in cheaper electricity for the consumer (targeting £30-60/MWh LCOE), but more importantly, that the lights stay on without the need for carbon-intensive generation to replace reliable low carbon supplies as the UK’s operating nuclear stations are retired in the coming decade.

The Moorside nuclear project, with its strong development team, support from key local stakeholders and promise to level-up the north, will represent an attractive investment proposition for institutional investors, retail investors and Government.

Co-location of future technologies alongside established UK EPR technology will bring together a range of skills, experience and industry knowledge at one site, enabling the project to start quickly and helping to bring forward the development of SMRs and AMRs as part of the UK’s future energy system.

The Moorside Clean Energy Hub has potential to become a British-owned symbol of excellence, which heralds the UK’s transition to a low-carbon future.

2020 | AUTUMN — 17

How to do it and why it’s no longer science fiction!

Why we need AI to help us with Nuclear Documents: 18 — AUTUMN | 2020

BY. DERRECK VAN GELDEREN / PA NUCLEAR CONSULTING

When combining an industry that is riddled with acronyms with one that is full of buzzwords, it’s easy to get lost in the volume of individual capital letters.

Too many articles provide exciting headlines without even teasing its readers with a few of the blueprints. This article attempts to demystify some of these modern terms, often overused but seldom explained.

T

ext data typically represents most of the data an organisation deals with and is often difficult to analyse quickly and comprehensively. However, unlocking its full value can be very important; for instance, it could mean a better understanding of how nuclear systems are inter-connected.

We can now create Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions that can automate and enhance current manual processes. These include reading and extracting information from technical documentation; from safety case to operational documents, and maintenance and inspection schedules.

Using a range of techniques to tailor an AI solution to text data (also termed natural language data), we can in turn provide both a holistic and detailed view of a power plant.

Note that the beauty of these techniques is that they are transferable and can be tailored to any sector.

In short, finding the answers you need without even having to read a page!

These solutions transform your ability to read and digest technical documentation into a more robust and fluid experience by:

Automating • Reducing the time required to answer questions under-pinning future key decisions.

• Reducing dependency on key asset owners to find out the required information, for instance what are the key safety claims on a cooling system?

• Improving the accessibility of technical information enabling everyone to obtain a datadriven answer.

Enhancing • Tailoring algorithms to specific documents, so they can learn to match key descriptions, operations and/or safety claims without even being told what asset they belong to.

• Identifying links between assets.

If an asset needs to be modified, we can map the documents related to this asset and its supporting assets.

• Improve knowledge transfer by reducing the need to store information on local spreadsheets.

What do we mean by AI solution?

The key terms to know are Machine Learning (ML) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) which are important subsets of AI. • M L models iteratively learn from data and can find hidden insights without being told where to look.

• NLP is used to analyse and process unstructured natural language data (text and audio).

We may think that our “experience” means we understand these documents better, but we are in fact training our own “biological machine learning model” to look for key terms or recognise specific descriptions. Think about how you recognise dogs in the street—you don’t need to have learned every dog breed (unless you’re a serious Crufts fan!) to correctly identify whether an animal is a dog.

may have not be considered As Low As Reasonably Practicable (ALARP)—where the cost involved in reducing risk further is disproportionate to the benefit gained.

How do these techniques work?

Humans look at words and machines look at numbers NLP models translate words, sentences and documents into vectors to create structure out of the inherently unstructured natural language text data. This means we can develop solutions that don’t simply look at relative term frequency to determine its importance.

Instead, these can consider other factors, such as the context of surrounding words on the meaning of individual words. We can then use these distributed numerical representations of word features to mathematically (e.g. cosine similarity between vectors) detect similarities between words, sentences and documents.

Sentence

Similarity Score

The FHM handles loads safely such that load path integrity is maintained during normal conditions These faults include delays during unsealed loaded Cask handling I can ride my bike with no handle bars n example of how semantic similarity can be used to group sentences A together; rather than searching for key words, these techniques analyse the underlying context.

The figure above shows which references (right) underpin each system (left)

However, not all models need to be “trained” to start achieving operational benefits. There are several established NLP techniques that can help automate manual activities with minimal computational cost. These techniques can be used to automatically ingest, process and extract information (e.g. key systems or hazards) from thousands of documents much faster than even an experienced engineer could.

Theoretically given enough data usage and contexts, algorithms can make highly accurate suggestions about a word’s meaning based on past appearances and the context of surrounding words. These suggestions can be used to establish a word’s association with other words. This means you can either: • Use the context (e.g. several input words) to predict a target word (highest probability word given context of surrounding words.)

• Use a word to predict a target context | using autoencoder neural network projection we output weighted probabilities of other words that are likely to be associated with the context of the input word.

So what? n example of how NLP can be used to identify, differentiate and extract A relevant key terms from free text

AI can find the information quicker, but do you need to be a human to understand the underlying text?!

Not Always! These solutions are more than a glorified search engine. By combining ML and NLP we can start answering questions that previously would only be possible to subject matter experts.

By significantly reducing the time required and the associated cost, we can then start to also answer questions that previously

The nuclear industry is underpinned by its documentation— Authoring, verifying, and modifying these documents are critical to enable the safe operation of its nuclear power plants. However, simply because the established processes in document production and reviewing have been the same for the last 40+ years, it does not mean they’re flawless.

Existing processes can be extremely lengthy and costly (documents can take more than a year to be approved).

Therefore, identifying/decoding links between systems or system boundaries from our existing documents is hard unless you’re an expert. Lastly, documents only represent a snapshot in time.

2020 | AUTUMN — 19

Scenario

Description

Using these modern techniques to ingest and analyse nuclear documents, we could:

Automatically extract and classify key information

Identify Connections between systems

These may include extracting safety claims, hazards, fault conditions, etc. and classifying by a known parameter (e.g. system name/code, type of fault, etc.)

Identifying interdependencies between systems and their supporting systems or during operations (i.e. which cooling systems support the reactor, or which interact with each other as fuel is transported from the reactor to the ponds.)

After receiving new fracture toughness data a system engineer may need to identify all relevant structural integrity safety claims and corresponding arguments and evidence associated with the charge machine at Hunterston B to assess if there are any shortfalls.

After permanent shutdown, if the fuel assembly is cold enough it may no longer require to be stored in an interim storage facility before being dismantled and stored directly in the plant’s ponds. A Programme Manager would need ot understand the time and cost required to modify all relevant documents (to enable the change in operation) and outweigh against the potential operational benefits.

These techniques mean that the documents are no longer just the items you read to answer a specific question but become the building blocks of a network.

And enable us to: • Train our algorithms to recognise systems from its descriptions, safety claims, types of operations without the name of the system needing to be explicitly mentioned • Provide interactive visualisations to interrogate, filter and drill down to the key parameters of interest (e.g. identifying all relevant documents and information associated with the Flask Hall Crane.)

• Have a solution that is always up to date and can look at increasing numbers of documents without significant additional cost.

• Reduce the number of documents needing detailed examination and the volume of information stored on localised spreadsheets, which ultimately impacts knowledge transfer within an organisation.

• Increase accessibility to all personnel working within the organisation | this could be extremely useful to help train junior engineers who need to learn about key systems.

sing ML and NLP we can start to draw connections between U key terms and in turn visualise the entire system

In time, we can easily foresee a solution which ingests new assessments (e.g. updated metrics on the degradation of ferritic steel caused by nuclear irradiation), automatically extracts key values (e.g. fracture toughness), identifies all relevant systems impacted and subsequently runs quantitative assessments using these updated metrics to determine the corresponding implications on existing safety claims. This way rather than simply notifying a pre-defined list of experts, it can already present these engineers with its initial findings.

So where next? n example of how NLP techniques can be used to classify a document into A discrete topics. Each topic consists of key terms and is represented by a bubble.

But can these models make mistakes?

Yes, but so can we. These solutions help us tackle the repetitive or time-consuming tasks (that are currently unreachable) more effectively. By setting up this data-driven process coupled with clear performance measurements, we can develop a robust methodology. In turn, this can help engineers answer even the more in-depth questions, for instance what are the implications on the Charge Machine’s existing safety claims if we double the frequency of operations?

20 — AUTUMN | 2020

These solutions are there to support and enhance engineers, not replace them! As the volume of data keeps increasing, we can’t afford to be sceptical about what are now established methods.

The time where you would wait for your computer to finish “working” has been gradually reversing. If we do not start leveraging these techniques to help our engineers today, our workforce, not our physical systems, may become tomorrow’s single point of failure.

Until our industry takes its first step into embracing innovation, we will never know the full extent of what AI can do in the nuclear industry. By starting small and tackling specific challenges we can build solutions that are impactful relatively quickly. Whilst there is a journey ahead of us before we can develop AI solutions that can generate our safety cases by themselves, there is a lot we can today that will bring tangible benefits!

MARTIN O’NEILL – AN APPRECIATION The former Chairman of the Nuclear Industry Association, Martin O’ Neill, Lord O’Neill of Clackmannan, sadly passed away at the end of August of pancreatic cancer. Our condolences and sympathies go to his wife Elaine, adult sons Michael and Peter and their young families.

Martin, who had been a teacher prior to being elected to Parliament in 1979, served as MP for Clackmannan in central Scotland and its successor constituency Ochil until 2005. Having served on the Labour frontbench during long years of opposition, he played an important part in the Labour Party’s long road back to electability as an ally of Neil Kinnock. While he was perhaps best known as the architect of the change in the Labour party’s defence policy from unilateralist to multilateralist in the 1980s, it was as chair of the then Trade and Industry select committee from 1995 until he stood down as an MP that he was able to range across a wider number of important issues.

It was a mark of his character that he did not shy away from being critical of the government he had worked so hard to see elected in 1997 and understood well the role of constructive challenge and detailed scrutiny. On postal services, manufacturing and energy policy, the committee he chaired expertly steered through a range of important issues.

It was after he stood down as an MP, and was made a life peer, that Martin became chairman of the NIA in June 2007, serving in that role until January 2012. He was a passionate and articulate advocate for the UK civil nuclear industry, his insights and judgement were invaluable as the political consensus in favour of new nuclear as part of the future power mix was developing. While a tireless voice in support of the industry, he was also adept at communicating privately but bluntly where he saw shortcomings. He did so with no malice, only concern for the good of the industry, and in the bluff but charming and straightforward way that was so widely appreciated.

Members of the NIA team who worked with Martin got to know him well and became fond of his disregard for formality and booming sense of humour.

Always kind to and appreciative of individuals, however junior, he became a good friend to many.

As well as his long commitment to politics, and his time as Chairman of the NIA, Martin was also a fanatical Hibernian supporter – serving for a time as a board member. Hibs beating Rangers 3-2 to win the Scottish Cup in 2016, for the first time in over a century, was something he would happily tell you about, at length, with all the enthusiasm and unbridled joy a true fan. The sunshine on Leith will always be appreciated.

Tom Greatrex Chief Executive, NIA

2020 | AUTUMN — 21

M

eet Tom Jones, the new Chief Executive Officer of NUVIA UK. Part of the VINCI Group, NUVIA is a nuclear specialist with roots in the nuclear industry stretching back over 60 years, providing trusted solutions in programmes and EPC, field services, technical services and consulting and innovative technology for nuclear and other hazardous environments.

With a background in mechanical engineering and over 20 years’ experience of global business leadership, he brings a deep understanding of complex engineering programmes, consulting, technology development and in building long term partnerships.

Speaking to Industry Link, Tom talks about his optimism and hopes for the future following the global pandemic and how this has positively influenced his plans for NUVIA going forward.

IN CONVERSATION ...

TOM JONES

ARE YOU OPTIMISTIC FOR THE FUTURE AND WHAT ARE YOUR HOPES?

22 — AUTUMN | 2020

First, I must acknowledge the impact of the global pandemic and the ongoing devastation it has caused. It has had a profound and unprecedented effect on people’s health and wellbeing across the world, of which I have first-hand experience, after suffered a severe case of COVID-19 back in March.

However, despite these unprecedented times, I firmly believe there are positives society can take forward and undoubted benefits from the behavioural and cultural changes people and businesses have adopted as a result of the pandemic.

An example of this is the rapid introduction of home/flexible working arrangements and a reduction in personal and business travel, resulting in significant environmental benefits. We have seen considerable reductions in carbon emissions, demonstrated by a 20-25% reduction in CO2 emissions in some countries at the early stages of the pandemic. In the future, there must be a balance, as employees begin to return to work and businesses review working arrangements, such as business travel, but I am convinced these cultural changes and subsequent benefits can be sustained for the longer-term, and help towards achieving the UK’s Net Zero by 2050 targets.

During this period, we have also seen an increase in the use of existing and new digital technology, which has resulted in the rapid upskilling of many employees, allowing businesses to reap the benefits with better collaboration and efficiencies.

I arrived at NUVIA during the early stages of the pandemic, and the use of digital technology has allowed me to quickly get to grips with how NUVIA operated and meet many employees, clients, and key stakeholders.

This digital transformation, with the increased use of dynamic communication and collaboration platforms, document sharing and video conferencing etc. must be behaviours we take forward beyond this period. I am convinced it will facilitate better communication and increased efficiencies.

These positive cultural and behavioural changes will hopefully transcend into a new roadmap for businesses, where we can work closely, collaboratively, and innovatively, to deliver the nation’s critical projects.

We are also reaching a pivotal period to ensure we achieve UK’s Net Zero by 2050 targets and deliver a decarbonised energy supply to support future heat, transport and electricity usage. I think now is the time to lobby government and key decision-makers to ensure nuclear has a key part to play, including new large reactors, SMRs, AMRs, Fusion and the opportunity for future UK IP development in these areas.

SO, WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR NUVIA? I have already commenced a business transformation programme which I think will ultimately enhance engagement and

collaboration with our customers, suppliers, and key stakeholders and facilitate a cultural renewal based around some core principles, such as: developing intellectual property that puts the customer’s needs at the centre of our products and services, driving for greater consistency to improve delivery and building a culture of collaboration, discipline and high performance.

As part of this ongoing programme, we have also restructured the business into four key business lines: Programmes and EPC, Field Services, Technical Services & Consulting, and Products & Innovation. This provides clarity on NUVIA’s products and services and brings focus to our efforts to become a leading industry provider in each of these areas. We have also moved to a lean central support and functional model that governs front line delivery and provides greater agility and puts the people closer to our customers.

Building on these changes, I firmly believe NUVIA has an exciting future where we can work collaboratively across industry to successfully meet the nuclear challenges and deliver costeffective innovative solutions to our clients and stakeholders.

I must also place on record my thanks to our employee’s tremendous commitment and flexibility during this period. These efforts undoubtedly helped to control and mitigate the impact of the pandemic on our business and allowed our projects to continue throughout without any significant disruption. I have seen first-hand the exceptional and dedicated staff we have at NUVIA, which has left me in no doubt that we are in good shape to embrace the challenges and opportunities that lay ahead.

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED ABOUT NUVIA’S CULTURE AND KEY SERVICES? Since my arrival it was clear that there is an embedded culture and commitment to the Health and Wellbeing of staff, both in the UK and across the Vinci Group.

Additionally, I am sure the changes we have initiated will complement a robust existing culture of excellence, commitment to innovation and the highest levels of safety, quality, and environmental awareness.

Our staff have in-depth knowledge and expertise in all aspects of the nuclear life cycle to support clients to deliver their nuclear programmes and our new business lines should provide clarity in our offers.

At all stages of the design, development, and operation our staff bring an understanding of regulatory regimes, licensing requirements, technological and operational requirements and our EPC services extend from the early stages of new-build through to decommissioning.

Some good examples of our services include, the demolition of the First-Generation Reprocessing Plant Stack at Sellafield, which was the first project in a generation to retire a Category A risk on the Sellafield site, and we also hold the largest privatesector Health Physics capability in Europe.

HOW DOES NIA MEMBERSHIP BENEFIT NUVIA UK?

The Twittersphere BY. GEORGINA HINES

The rise of the ‘influencer’ has changed the marketing game.

Of course, we still see the big names on the TV—I know I’m not the only one that looks forward to the Christmas adverts each year from the likes of Coca-Cola and John Lewis—but for smaller, up-and-coming brands, especially those who have a younger demographic, social media marketing and ‘influencers’ is a chance to make some real money.

I find ‘influencing’ a strange enough phenomenon as it is but now it turns out, even us mere mortals can make some money from social media if we play our cards right. A growing number of non-famous Twitter users have been using viral tweets to rake in some cash on the side.

First, they find a tweet that’s attracting attention and likely to go viral, then they use the comments to point others in the Twitter thread towards a brand that has paid them to post about its product. Often, those who post the viral tweet do not have a significant following. If you’re like me, you will have shrugged this off as I’m not one to buy things off a link posted by a person I don’t know.

However, you may be surprised to hear that one brand— Ocean Galaxy Light, who were Who to follow? interviewed by Bloomberg on Want information on nuclear the topic—offers $20-60 per and other relevant topics? promotion depending on the This issue we recommend popularity of the tweet and you follow: the company made $8,000 in revenue from Twitter in July.

As you can see, these small @NSSGNuclear amounts add up. @UKAEAofficial Before, users were more @sizewellc likely to offer their services @NDAgovuk to brands, but it is becoming more commonplace that a company reaches out to them.

The practice isn’t without its controversy, as it operates outside of Twitter’s advertising system, which requires users to tag a post as advertising and as we know, Twitter does not have the best enforcement of a lot of its own policies so the fact that these posts are breaking the rules often goes unnoticed by the platform.

Think I’ll stick with recommendations from friends and family for now, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be tempted in the future by that useless item ‘I have to have’ that I will in no doubt buy and then leave to gather dust in my cupboard …

Twitter Count Followers: 8,360 Tweets: 11 K

NUVIA has been an active member of the NIA for many years, and as a trade organisation representing the nuclear industry, they have a significant role to play.

The facilitation of Peer to Peer events, particularly the Business Group meetings, are of great value and provide excellent learning and networking opportunities.

The NIA helps to push and promote open dialogue within and across all sectors of the industry on topics that influence activities, such as: technical, fiscal, safety, environmental and skills issues, and brokering workable solutions.

2020 | AUTUMN — 23

TSP Engineering is focused on growing in the Nuclear Market BY. SARAH BURGOYNE / TSP ENGINEERING

TSP Engineering of Workington recently announced their success in being awarded a £30 million contract by Sellafield to support their ongoing commitment to decommissioning.

Back in 2018, the specialist manufacturer, TSP Engineering, submitted a bid for the contract to manufacture and commission 13 High Integrity Lead Lined Packages, with the purpose to transport legacy waste. The 50-tonne containers will transfer nuclear waste from the Magnox Swarf Storage Silo (MSSS) to newly built storage facilities on the Sellafield site as part of the Government’s Decommissioning Programme.

“Creating a clean and safe environment is essential in all that we do at Sellafield” said Sellafield CEO, Martin Chown.

“These packages help us achieve this. I was delighted to see a local business win this contract, which will lead to job creation and opportunities for west Cumbria. TSP Engineering is a worldclass company. Its success in winning this contract proves our nuclear supply chain can compete with the best in the world.”

Over 20 years ago, TSP Engineering manufactured and completed nine packages which were almost ready to be deployed as part of the decommissioning programme. Unfortunately, storage issues highlighted during the design of the waste retrieval operations, led to the programme being deferred and the packages placed in long term storage.

During this period, the design of the packages evolved dramatically to match the new designs being made within the MSSS building, primarily to ensure safe delivery of the waste. In 2015, TSP Engineering were re-commissioned to modify these original nine packages (to match the new design) alongside the refurbishment of 5 Gamma Gates. Thanks to the hard work, extensive planning, and skilled staff, TSP Engineering managed to deliver the contract ahead of schedule and £2.5M under budget.

Whilst MSSS was being delivered, Sellafield Ltd announced that an additional 15 packages would be required on top of the nine refurbished units. Sellafield Ltd decided to tender the market for two companies to manufacture a package from scratch with the successful company gaining a contract to manufacture the remaining 13. TSP Engineering performed the task with vigour and had a fully functional package ready to be delivered to Sellafield.

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Winning the bid for Sellafield Ltd is a result of the skill deployed, hard work endured and quality Tender Proposal. All these elements alongside the efficiency in both cost reduction and lead time were fundamental in TSP Engineering being awarded the contract to build all 13 packages over a 4-year period. The successful tender of this contract is a significant step for TSP Engineering in view of their ambitions to grow in the Nuclear Industry.

In the light of the contract, TSP Engineering’s CEO, John Coughlan, spoke of the importance of the contract for the business. He explained how the Nuclear Market is a focus for the Cumbrian based manufacturer, and how securing such a high-profile contract evidences the businesses ability to produce high quality products and services to their customers.

Not only does the contract help sustain 200 jobs at TSP Engineering, it also underlines both TSP Engineering and Sellafield’s commitment of investing in local supply chains as they are only a short drive down the Cumbrian coast from one another. The £30M contract will be hugely beneficial for the local economy and local supply chain community.

In 2016, TSP Engineering successfully negotiated their status to become a wholly owned independent subsidiary of British Steel. This independence has allowed them to make their own decisions for them to have full control over their future strategic development rather than having to be reliant on others who may not share their passion for the industry and Cumbria as a whole. Since the successful negotiation, like Sellafield, it has become part of the TSP Engineering culture to collaborate with other local businesses and the SME supply chain, benefiting both smaller businesses and local people.

Henri Murison, Director of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, agrees with the benefits the contract will have on Cumbria as a county: “This is tremendous news for west Cumbria and the north’s economy as a whole.

Manufacturers like TSP are crucial to developing a strong and resilient economy to underpin the ambitions of the Northern Powerhouse. I’m delighted to see Sellafield Ltd investing in its local supply chain to create jobs, growth, and opportunity.”

Business as usual, as our usual is still virtual NIA’s webinar programme is in full swing BY. STEPHANIE MCKENNA

For many of us, the virtual world continues to be our place of work. We don’t know exactly when “normal” is going to happen again, but with faith that it will one day, we are seeing the first bit of light at the end of the tunnel as we can return to some of our old activities (with some new adjustments, of course).

Since I last wrote in June, the NIA has continued to let our members know what is happening in the industry through our weekly communications, website and webinar programme. As this edition of Industry Link hits your screens we have delivered 20+ webinars for our members.

Many of the webinar topics will still be relevant months down the line, so take a moment to see what you might have missed on the members’ side of the NIA website.

We will continue to offer the webinar programme, even as Government guidelines change, as it has been so successful, but will certainly look at meeting in the real world again as well, when we can.

The NIA will be reviewing the business group programme in the coming weeks and sharing with members what this will look like for the remainder of the year.

We will ensure, where it is possible and safe to do so, that we will bring members together to network in-person.

A few farewells I have been fortunate enough to work with Corhyn Parr, Director of UK Waste Operations, Nuclear Decommissioning Authority over the past few years on our

Next Generation Nuclear Industry Council BY. GEORGINA HINES

W

hile the industry focuses its efforts on the role of nuclear in achieving Net Zero, the young voice of the industry is becoming increasingly important.

As the leaders of tomorrow, today’s young to mid-career professionals need to be involved in the strategic decisions that will propel the industry forward towards a more sustainable future. Their input is essential to ensure diversity of thought and for innovative new solutions to our ongoing issues to be implemented.

Without an existing forum for these professionals to engage with and inf luence with today’s industry leaders, the Next Generation Nuclear Industry Council (NGNIC) was born.

The NGNIC will support the Nuclear Industry Council (NIC) in tackling long-term challenges that face the industry, while also driving its own agenda and initiatives that complement the NIC’s overarching goals—from branding the sector and a diverse future workforce, to work in STEM outreach and building stakeholder relationships.

Early in 2020, we started the process to recruit Council members and received over 120 applications from across industry and Government—making recruitment an incredibly competitive process. Applications were then filtered down by a blind selection process and marked with set criteria that would ensure the greatest possible mix of applicants to invite to interview. The interviews were then scrutinised by a panel made up of invited judges and some tough decisions were made.

Decommissioning and Existing Generation group. As she hands over the reins, I would like to thank her for all the hard work and dedication she gave to the group. It has been an absolute pleasure.

More farewell are in order: Tris Denton, Head of Commercial & Programme Development, STEP, UK Atomic Energy Authority, who triumphantly chaired our New Build group over the past three years with Shayne and then Ieuan, will be leaving the group. Tris has provided a great wealth of knowledge and enthusiasm. Thank you, Tris. Your hard work has always been appreciated by the team.

There is an election in progress for these two positions and I very much look forward to announcing our new chairs in due course.

After a three-month long recruitment process, we announced the Council members as: → Alys

Garner, Cavendish Nuclear (Chair) → Georgia Pawson, Corporate Risk Associates and YGN (Interim Chair) → Georgina Hines, NIA (Secretary) → Gregory Ashurst, IPA → Mohammed Hussain, BEIS → Arun Khuttan, Magnox

→ Emily

Newton, MoD

→ Daisy

Ray, BEIS

→ Ruth

Sellick, Orano and BECBC

→ Callum

Thomas, Thomas Thor Associates

→ Jake

Tudge, Accenture

→ Anna

Tyler-Revell, Magnox

→ David

Watson, Jacobs

While the Council are currently meeting to discuss potential interests, projects and initiatives to take forward, our key objectives also include supporting the NIC’s agenda and implementation of a vision for the nuclear industry, acting as ambassadors for nuclear, building relationship with other wider industry networks (not just those in nuclear), and championing the diversity and equality agenda to help create a more inclusive environment in our industry.

In the meantime, a mentoring scheme has been put in place between NIC and NGNIC members to help facilitate and inspire conversation between the two forums, as well as provide guidance to the young professionals on their careers and personal development. NGNIC members will also be able to attend NIC meetings with the Minister to give regular updates on the progress of the Council’s activities.

Theres lots to look out for in the coming months so keep your eyes peeled on the NIA’s social media channels where we will be announcing further developments.

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NEWS IN BRIEF

Processing Waste: Lockdown and Re-Start Despite the good intentions expressed in recent months by the industry, the shipment and processing of waste from the nuclear sector has definitely not yet found its ‘new normal’ since lockdown was eased.

During lockdown, the Tradebe team worked tirelessly to manage the significant challenges that the pandemic raised.

With new COVID-Secure approaches in place across the business, our Fawley site continued operating throughout and Winfrith only halted processing waste due to incoming consignments not being sent.

Over the last few months we also took the opportunity to upgrade Winfrith’s laboratory facilities, have been awarded a contract under the LLWR Metals Treatment Services Framework 2 and, for a 17th consecutive year, had our safety performance

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recognised with a RoSPA Gold Award, so retaining our RoSPA Order of Distinction.

But although our consignment teams remain operational and ready to receive customer waste shipments, the anticipated re-start by the industry has not yet materialised.

Not only does this increase the backlog of wastes that regulators and local stakeholders expect to be dealt with but it also increases the risk that in the coming months supply chain partners won’t be ready or able to provide the breadth and speed of processing solutions that waste producers have become used to.

Together, we have the opportunity to establish a ‘new normal’ that works for all parts of the industry: let’s take action now that will guarantee a diverse and sustainable supply chain for the future.

Assystem announce new UK Business Development Director Assystem, the world’s second largest nuclear engineering company, with UK head offices in Blackburn, has announced that Simon Barber will be the company’s new UK Business Development Director.

Simon joins Assystem from Arup and has a wealth of experience in the UK nuclear industry, having worked closely with Rolls-Royce during the early stages of their Small Modular Reactor development and with UKAEA, helping them to develop the STEP fusion programme.

The UK Business Development Director’s role will be key to delivering Assystem’s high-level strategic aims in the UK, capitalising on current opportunities in the civil nuclear market and cementing the company as a key player in the industry.

Peter Higton, Managing Director of Assystem UK said, “Simon joins us at a pivotal time in our growth in the UK, as we are ready to capitalise on the exciting developments ahead for the energy sector, by bringing the right skills, knowledge and people to support the innovative, low carbon technology projects in the UK today.”

Rolls-Royce Wins New Contract

Rolls-Royce was awarded multi-million euros contract by China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) to provide Bibloc pressure transmitters for two nuclear reactors currently under construction in China, Zhangzhou 1 and Zhangzhou 2, both of Hualong One reactor design (HPR1000).

As part of the contracts, Rolls-Royce will provide more than 200 Bibloc safety classified pressure transmitters (Severe Accident, K1, K2, K3 SA) and the associated accessories such as cables, connections and electronics. Including this latest installation, these transmitters will now be in place on 36 nuclear reactors in China.

Bibloc safety nuclear pressure transmitters, which are qualified for 60 years of operation, are designed and manufactured by Rolls-Royce I&C teams based in Grenoble, France.

They are used for precise and reliable pressure, flow and level measurements in nuclear severe accident environments.

Stéphane Lessi, Rolls-Royce Civil Nuclear France, Business Unit Director, said: “For more than 25 years, we have been collaborating with CNNC in China. We are delighted to have signed these new contracts, which is a strong evidence of the confidence that CNNC continues to place in our I&C technologies and in our people, for the future of their fleet.”

Framatome signs contract to provide field instrumentation to Hinkley Point C

Framatome signed a contract with Hinkley Point C to supply conventional field instrumentation for the two UK EPRs under construction at the nuclear power station located in Somerset, England. Approximately 10,000 instruments will monitor and measure temperature, flow, pressure and level under all operating conditions.

“With this contract, we are expanding our global footprint to provide instrumentation and control solutions for the Hinkley Point C project, one of the major industrial projects in the country,” said Marc Duret, managing director of Framatome in the UK. “Framatome has the ambition to create about 100 British jobs in the next two years for construction support and engineering roles. We are committed to the Hinkley Point C project, which will eventually provide 7% of the U.K.’s electricity needs, create 25,000 employment opportunities, and make significant contributions to the country’s net-zero emissions goals.”

Framatome is already contracted to supply the nuclear instrumentation for the Hinkley Point C nuclear steam supply system. This new contract expands on Framatome’s work to include the design, manufacturing, procurement, pre-assembly, installation and qualification of the field instruments.

“Our team at Framatome has intimate knowledge of the instrumentation and control market and extensive expertise in qualification,” said Frédéric Lelièvre, senior executive vice president, Sales, Regional Platforms and the Instrumentation and Control Business Unit at Framatome. “This contract builds on our solid experience in delivering field instrumentation for the EPRs in Olkiluoto and Taishan, and for other reactors around the globe.”

Hinkley Point C, a joint venture between EDF and China General Nuclear Corporation, is the UK’s first new nuclear power station in more than 20 years. It will be home to two UK EPR reactors and will produce enough low-carbon electricity to serve approximately 6 million homes. Hundreds of Framatome employees support Hinkley Point C on engineering, components, nuclear fuel, instrumentation and control, manufacturing, construction and commissioning activities.

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NOT A MEMBER?

NEW NIA MEMBERS

To find out about the work of NIA and benefits of membership visit www.niauk.org/about-us/ membership-benefits.

You will find more information on our business group meetings, monthly updates and our exclusive online trade directory.

To discuss membership options available to your company please call +44 (0)20 7766 6651 or email stephanie.mckenna@niauk.org

ATS Automation Tooling Systems Inc atsautomation.com One of the world largest integrators of custom automation and robotics for the nuclear industry, ATS has proven experience in decommissioning, waste handling/volume reduction, fuel fabrication and fuel handling, reactor inspection and maintenance, hot cells and medical isotope technology.

It has developed the industry’s most comprehensive automation engineering and assembly resource team, over 4,500 strong, and, with a global footprint that includes over 25 facilities.

ENGIE Ineo Nuclear Ltd engie-solutions.com ENGIE Ineo is the nuclear electrical engineering expert of the ENGIE group.

It delivers large turnkey projects through design, engineering, calculations, manufacturing, qualification, installation, on-site supervision, testing and commissioning, maintenance, obsolescence management and decommissioning.

ENGIE Ineo Nuclear can address the whole nuclear sector and provide its extensive expertise on all type of nuclear sites. It is supporting the UK in achieving its net zero transition through bringing an extensive experience from large nuclear projects and investing in critical capabilities in the South-West to support Hinkley Point C.

ENGIE AXIMA engie-axima.fr

ENGIE_axima solid_BLUE_RGB 22/10/2015 24, rue Salomon de Rothschild - 92288 Suresnes - FRANCE Tél. : +33 (0)1 57 32 87 00 / Fax : +33 (0)1 57 32 87 87 Web : www.carrenoir.com

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A key player in design and construction of HVAC systems across Europe. ENGIE RÉFÉRENCES COULEUR AXIMA provide expertise in nuclear ventilation through the entire project life cycle: from design to installation R0 G170 B255 and maintenance but also for bespoke classified HVAC equipment.

ENGIE AXIMA has gained 50 years’ experience in France and overseas projects ( UK, China, South Korea, South Africa.) It is also very proud to be playing its part in the “nuclear renaissance” in the UK through its involvement in Hinkley Point C Project.

LTi Metaltech Ltd lti-metaltech.com LTi Metaltech Ltd specialise in precision fabrication and welding for highlyregulated industries.

As an innovative specialist with more than 40 years’ experience, it combines the talents of its highly skilled workforce with the latest technologies and practices, to deliver high quality products.

Ieuan Williams Head of Policy & Public Affairs ieuan.williams@niauk.org

“OUR MESSAGE IS STILL CLEAR THAT WE NEED NEW NUCLEAR POWER STATIONS. IF ANYTHING, THE CASE FOR NUCLEAR IS STRONGER THAN EVER”

On Wednesday 16 September, Hitachi officially announced it was pulling out of the development of Wylfa Newydd and Oldbury stations. Much of the commentary on the day focussed on the clinical aspects of their decision, but none of coverage really went into the human side of it all, and what it meant for real people.

Back in January 2019 I was still fairly new to the NIA, having just joined from the now-former MP for Ynys Môn’s office.

In some way or form, by that point I’d been working on Wylfa Newydd for over three years.

To say I took the news of Horizon’s suspension of activity badly would be an understatement. For example, the blog I wrote about it for our website was just too emotional to post. However, given the latest announcement, I feel it’s appropriate to share why this project matters so much.

Since then, the decline has been significant. The marine yard was privatised and closed, then a chemical plant went, followed by Anglesey Aluminium, and finally Wylfa’s output ended in 2015 after multiple pioneering lifetime extensions.

In the meantime, huge developments have been promised and subsequently evaporated; an eco-park to replace the smelter, a 2GW offshore wind array and a revolutionary prototype underwater current turbine project, to name a few.

But there was a light at the end of the tunnel. A spearhead development, a huge project measuring in the tens of billions of pounds, two Advanced Boiling Water Reactors, paling its predecessor into insignificance, providing enough clean, reliable power to over 4 million homes.

That’s enough to power all of Wales, with plenty to spare. Then came the suspension.

Those left at Horizon afterwards didn’t just take the easy option and lie down, not even for one second. They worked tirelessly to get the project back on track, and in recent months saw a significant increase in engagement with the Government to remobilise. There was even some hope.

To then have the development pulled reasons completely out of anyone’s control, is simply a kick in the guts.

Wylfa Newydd was going to be the catalyst for one of the poorest places in Europe. The benefits from which would echo far beyond this tiny corner of North West Wales, impacting the economy of

the entire region, seeing the extension of the North West Nuclear Arc and a thermal hydraulics facility developed on the Island too. All now confined to the category of ‘could have been on Anglesey’.

If an alternative partner isn’t found, then there will be yet another generation of exported youth leaving their homes to get a decent job, with no opportunity to get the best of both worlds, a great career in one of the most beautiful places in the country.

Of course, our message is still clear that we need new nuclear power stations. If anything, the case for nuclear is stronger than ever, and the Government is showing signs of getting to grips with making the big decisions needed on our country’s nationally critical infrastructure.

Wylfa remains a designated site for new nuclear development, and is one of the best sites in the world. No decision has been taken yet by Hitachi on the future of Horizon, and if they are prepared to stand aside it could be a major catalyst for progress.

One day, we’ll be able to jovially look back at this event as another bump in the road for Wylfa, but for now it’s still a little bit raw.

2020 | AUTUMN — 29

Platinum Sponsor

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Now in its 20th year, the event will bring together speakers from across all parts of the nuclear industry to review key developments in 2020 and look ahead to 2021.

This year’s theme, Forty by ’50, lays out the roadmap of contributions nuclear can make to our new national priorities. It includes the steps we need to take to unlock a major economic boost in the short term, and long term deliver a 40% share of clean electricity, and a prosperous Net Zero economy by 2050.

Gold Sponsor

The event will welcome speaker Jim Al-Khalili as he discusses science in public life and policy and the implications for nuclear; an update on the Government’s nuclear policy with Minister Nadhim Zahawi; the UK’s new build programme with speakers from the winning companies of the AMR competition. In addition, you will hear about what’s next for the Nuclear Sector Deal; updates on fusion, medical isotopes and hydrogen production.

This year’s conference will be a digital festival, with virtual breakout rooms and opportunities to network. Rest assured this won’t be just another Zoom call: as a delegate, you will be immersed in a fully interactive event, where you can send invitations to others to connect, and submit questions with real-time communication.

Don’t miss this unique experience and chance to look ahead in a critical time for our industry. Details on registration and sponsorship opportunities will be available on the NIA website shortly.

Nuclear Industry Association is a company limited by guarantee registered in England No. 2804518.

Registered Office: 5th Floor, Tower House, 10 Southampton Street, London WC2E 7HA

Free to Attend For sponsorship & exhibition email veronica.lekavicius@niauk.org

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