Industry Link – Spring 2023

#EmbraceEquity

We have taken International Women’s Day as an opportunity to shine a light on some of the women in JFN. Their experiences and guidance are fundamental to achieving our goals, they should serve as an inspiring reminder of how much more we will accomplish as a truly inclusive industry.

Welcome to the first Industry Link of 2023, and boy has it been a busy start to the year! January’s re-scheduled Nuclear Week in Parliament set the tone for what has been a fruitful few months for the sector, with the launch of Great British Nuclear and a lifetime extension for two of our stalwart AGR stations.

There was more even good news with the announcement of nuclear’s inclusion in the UK Green Taxonomy, a huge moment which will drive crucial investment into new projects. For those unsure about the reasons behind that decision, NIA Chief Executive Tom Greatrex’s article is a must read.

Also featured in this Spring edition is a closer look at the future of nuclear-derived synthetic fuels by Equilibrion’s Dr Phil Rogers, Osprey explain how they helped delivered the first reactor to the UK in 30 years, and Holtec’s bid to power 9 million homes with its fleet of SMRs.

Momentum has been growing in the sector for a while now, reflected in this bumper edition of Industry Link, which we hope you will enjoy!

Iolo James Head of Communications, Editor

WHY NUCLEAR IS GREEN

PAGE 8

THE PROMISE OF DIGITAL IN NUCLEAR

Editor - Iolo James

Art Editor - Dan Powney

Press & Advertisement Enquiries - press@niauk.org

Membership Enquiries - membership@niauk.org

Contributors - Tom Greatrex • Jon Woodburn • Lincoln

• Dr Phil Rogers, Equilibrion

Hill • Callum Thomas, NextGen NIC

• Gareth Thomas, Holtec Britain • Aneela Nasim, Dassault Systemes • John Edwards, Costain • Trevor Brown, Sellafield • Carol Tansley, X-energy • Kelly Lea, UKAEA • Alan Raymant, Cwmni Egino • Professor

Adrian Bull, Dalton Nuclear Institute

• Helen Batt, Osprey Ltd • with additional thanks to World Nuclear News

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

TEL +44(0)20 7766 6640

EMAIL info@niauk.org

Cover image - Courtesy of EDF www.edfenergy.com/about/nuclear/power-stations

PAGE 9

HOLTEC’S BID TO POWER

9 MILLION UK HOMES WITH FLEET OF SMR-160

Why nuclear is green

Nuclear has the lowest lifecycle carbon intensity, the lowest land use, and the lowest impact on ecosystems of any electricity source. We are the only sector that tracks, manages, makes safe, and for new build, pays for, its own waste. If you don’t read any more, that is why nuclear is green.

The UK Government’s decision to classify nuclear investment as sustainable to “green label” nuclear is a victory for the facts and a victory for science over ideological prejudice. I think it’s worth reiterating that science.

Nuclear has an incredibly low carbon footprint and a minimal impact on the surrounding environment, because in technical terms,it is the most “energy dense” source of energy we have by far. Or to be clearer still it is the most powerful source of energy on earth, as well as the most efficient source of energy. One kilogram of uranium can release 3 million times the energy of a kilogram of coal. One fuel pellet, the size of your fingertip, can produce enough electricity to power an electric car for 20,000 miles. There are 19 million of those pellets in the core of Sizewell B. Use up all those pellets, and that car makes the round trip to Pluto (a planet when I was young) 50 times with no emissions. This is the power of E=mc2 played out to save our planet. An incredibly valuable resource when demand for emissions free power is so key to our future. When it comes to saving our planet, the key to evaluating what technologies are green or not is to conduct comprehensive lifecycle analyses of their impact. From the nuclear sector, that is all we have asked for, to be compared on a like-for-like basis, on a level playing field with all other technologies. That level playing field produces some interesting results.

According to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe 2022 report Carbon Neutrality in the UNECE Region: Integrated Life-cycle Assessment of Electricity Sources nuclear has some superb green credentials:

● The lowest lifecycle carbon intensity of any electricity generating technology, at 5.1g-6.4g CO2/kWh

● The lowest lifecycle land use of any electricity generating technology

● The lowest impact on ecosystems of any electricity generating technology

That is the science of why nuclear is green. For good measure, nuclear has the lowest lifecycle mineral and metal use of any of the low-carbon technologies. If you’re after specific examples, EDF had lifecycle analyses conducted of Sizewell C and Hinkley Point C. The results? Both projects would have lifecycle emissions of about 5.5g. That would make them the greenest single infrastructure projects in UK history.

Even an older station like Torness in Scotland, with lower lifetime output and older construction methods

has a lifecycle carbon use of around 10g/kWh of electricity. Good enough to make it one of the greenest energy assets in Scottish history. For comparison purposes, the equivalent figure for offshore wind is 12g and 11g for onshore wind according to the IPCC.

I’ll give you one more example on land. The UK’s existing nuclear fleet, 5,883 MW, produces 15% of the nation’s power from a footprint of just 0.57 square miles. At that rate of 10,295 MW per square mile, we could deliver the 24 GW envisaged in the British Energy Security Strategy in less than three square miles of land. If we want twice or three times that much nuclear, we would still ask for just 10 of the UK’s 94,000 square miles of land. The rest we can leave for natural habitats, for agriculture, or for other development. That is why we have the least impact on ecosystems of any electricity technology.

But what, comes the next question, about the waste? Every energy technology produces waste, and the nuclear sector today has the most responsible approach to waste management of any energy sector.

Let’s look at the facts. For a start, nuclear produces a tiny amount of waste for the energy created. More than 95% of the radioactivity in waste is confined to a small volume of High Level Waste (HLW). After 67 years of nuclear power generation (and prior years of research and development), there is a dishwasher tablet’s worth of HLW for everyone in the UK: the packaged volume of HLW is 1,470m3 a little over two-thirds the volume of one Olympic size swimming pool for 66 million people. In that time, nuclear has provided over 3000 TWh of electricity, enough to power every home in this country for 28 years.

HLW is not the only kind of waste, but the small volumes compared to other technologies facilitate responsible management. Indeed, the nuclear sector is the only sector that tracks, isolates, manages and makes safe its own waste.

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority publishes a regular inventory of the UK’s nuclear waste, which gives the volumes, sources, future projections and intended final destinations of the different types of waste. You will not find that elsewhere.

Nuclear waste is stored at specialist nuclear facilities and does not leave the care of dedicated nuclear professionals. We recognise the particular nature of our waste and adhere to strict regulatory requirements and the highest standards of monitoring and oversight. Over the years, reactor designs have become much more efficient in terms

of waste production and the sector itself has taken a hard look at itself to learn lessons and to constantly adapt and improve our practices.

What is more, we are not still searching for the answers for how to make waste safe. In geological disposal we have an answer: turn it into glass, encase it in concrete casks, bury that concrete deep in the ground, surround it with cement, and seal it up.

When we look to the future, new nuclear projects are the only energy projects that are required to have funding streams set aside for decommissioning and plans for the on-site storage, treatment and final disposal of all waste, before construction can begin. Decommissioning is priced into new nuclear projects. Hinkley Point C, for instance, has a funded decommissioning stream worth £2/MWh, which is incorporated into the overall project strike price. Sizewell C and all future nuclear projects will also have dedicated funding. Every sector should do it. Only nuclear does.

For those of you who want to read more than this article and I encourage you to read more you can look at the comprehensive technical assessment the EU commissioned from its Joint Research Centre as part of the development of their sustainable investment taxonomy.

They examined nuclear against six environmental objectives, which are the same ones that the UK will use:

1. Climate change mitigation

2. Climate change adaptation

3. Sustainable and protection of water and marine resources

4. Transition to a circular economy

5. Pollution prevention and control

6. Protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems

That report, “did not reveal any science-based evidence that nuclear energy does more harm to human health or to the environment than other electricity production technologies already included in the Taxonomy as activities supporting climate change mitigation”.

So when the Chancellor says that “subject to consultation, nuclear power will be classed as environmentally sustainable in our green taxonomy”, he is following the science.

The science says nuclear has the lowest carbon, lowest land, lowest ecosystem impact. So we follow the science: nuclear is green.

Nuclear packs vital economic punch

Nuclear does what it says on the tin: it delivers clean, affordable, firm power which strengthens energy security by reducing our reliance on fossil fuels, helping to make significant strides towards net zero. It’s why policymakers want to embark on another golden age of British atomic innovation with a huge ramp up of new nuclear. But there’s more to nuclear than meets the eye.

With work underway to meet the government’s 24 GW of nuclear by 2050 target, the wider benefits of the sector will become much more clear-cut as communities and the supply chain start to feel the effects of major new projects. Just look at what Hinkley C has done for the South West economy, having already delivered £4 billion worth of investment, with more than 8,000 people working on the construction site and over 1,000 apprentices trained. The numbers are truly impressive.

To understand the wider economic contribution of the industry, the NIA, thanks to independent analysis undertaken by Oxford Economics, has, for the time since 2017, produced a comprehensive study of civil nuclear industry’s economic contribution.

The Delivering Value report shows that in 2021, the industry generated £6.1 billion in GDP for the UK economy, around twice as much as the air transport industry. When the indirect impact of the sector’s activity is taken into account, that figure more than doubles to a whopping £16.1 billion. The direct impact, also generated substantial sums in taxes paid to the Exchequer, with the report estimating the sector paid around £4.5 billion in tax payments in 2021, rising to £7.1 billion when associated spend is included.

If the country is serious about supercharging new nuclear projects, these numbers should reach new heights with nuclear a major contributor to the green economy.

Key to that will be green jobs. The sector is already a vital green job creator, with more than 64,000 people directly employed, a figure which jumps to 211,000 when taking into account jobs that are reliant in some way on the sector’s activities. Additionally, it supports one in every 148 jobs across the UK, and around £1 in every £49 of economic output for both the north west and the south west of England.

The average civil nuclear worker generates £102,500 of GVA (Gross Value Added), a rate almost twice as high as the UK median figure. This level of productivity puts employees of nuclear firms within the second most productive 10% of the UK workforce.

Since every single nuclear station in operation and decommissioning is in coastal Britain, nuclear brings jobs and investment to some of the most deprived parts of the country. In England, almost 40% of direct employment in the sector occurs

in the most deprived 25% of local authorities. In Scotland, that figure is close to 50%, making nuclear vital to the levelling up agenda.

The report shows the largest economic impact was felt in the North West, home to Sellafield, the National Nuclear Laboratory and Heysham power stations, as well as Urenco at Capenhurst and Springfields fuel plant. Some £3.9 billion in GVA was contributed by the sector across the region in 2021 equivalent to 2.1% of all regional output. The South West, home to the Hinkley Point C, saw the next largest impact, totalling £2.6 billion, an increase of 60% compared to 2016.

As well as being an important contributor to the economy, nuclear remains an integral part of the electricity mix, but there is work to be done. Around 15% of total electricity produced in Britain comes from nuclear power, down from around a fifth in 2016. It is the second largest source of low carbon electricity in the UK, providing a backbone of firm, clean power alongside renewables.

However, with two thirds of all dispatchable power capacity be retiring by 2030, including all but one of our current nuclear stations, this will need to the replaced with a new nuclear fleet to continue providing the reliable, low carbon power the UK will need if it is to keep the lights on and hit net zero.

As is shown in the South West, new build projects bring with them significant economic benefit, and coupled with the progress being made in decommissioning, they have helped develop UK capability across the supply chain. There is also significant opportunity for the sector to be world leaders in the development of Small Modular Reactors, a global market which could be worth hundreds of billions of pounds.

There is, though, much work to be done. The vision of Great British Nuclear, set out in the Government’s Energy Security Strategy, could signal the start of a new atomic age for Britain. But we need to act urgently so we can maximise opportunities and help improve productivity, foster innovation and reduce costs, so we can continue to deliver economic benefits for generations to come and make Britain a nuclear energy powerhouse.

▲ Read the report online at https://www.niauk.org/delivering-value

Developing and Supporting Inclusive Leaders in the UK Nuclear Sector

The Future Workforce consultations carried out by the Next Generation Nuclear Industry Council culminated in this report in September 2022. The report includes 7 recommendations and over the course of 2023 we will start to address some of these in collaboration with individuals from across the UK industry that have an interest in the topics and a motivation to support meaningful action.

In the future workforce consultations, we asked people to describe a working environment in which they would feel most comfortable, happy, motivated and included. The answer that came up most frequently was ‘’Inclusive’’. This led us to the recommendation that national coordination in developing inclusive leaders would really make a difference. The idea of a future where the nuclear sector is known as an inclusive place to work and an environment that develops and supports inclusive leaders is truly exciting. We respect the fact that all organisations in the sector are addressing inclusion at the organisational level, so the question we will be answering over the course of 2023 is the following: What can be done at the sector level nationally to compliment and enhance the initiatives happening within organisations. Our starting point is to define inclusive leadership. What does it mean to be an inclusive leader and why is it so important to the success of the UK nuclear sector?

Inclusive Leadership in the Nuclear Industry What is it and why does it matter?

Inclusive leadership in the nuclear industry is a topic of growing importance. It refers to a style of leadership that embraces diversity and encourages collaboration among people with different backgrounds, opinions, and experiences. This type of leadership is essential for fostering an environment of growth and innovation, as well as creating an inclusive workplace culture.

Defining Inclusive Leadership

Nembhard and Edmondson (2006) define inclusive leadership as ‘’words and deeds exhibited by leaders that invite and appreciate others’

contributions’’. Inclusive leadership is a type of leadership style which focuses on building relationships and creating an environment of collaboration, inclusion, and respect. Inclusive leaders strive to create an environment in which every individual feels valued, respected, and supported regardless of their background or identity. Inclusive leadership is particularly important in the nuclear industry as it allows for a diverse group of professionals to work together and achieve success.

Inclusive leadership focuses on building trust, understanding the perspectives of others, and actively listening to those around us. It encourages open communication between leaders and those they lead, and encourages everyone to be part of the decision-making process. Inclusive leaders also strive to create an environment that is psychologically safe and supportive, and they recognize the importance of diversity in building strong teams and organizations.

In the nuclear industry, inclusive leadership is important in order to create a workplace that is both safe and effective. This type of leadership encourages open dialogue and constructive collaboration among team members, as well as respectful communication and support. By emphasizing inclusive leadership practices, the nuclear industry can ensure that that diverse perspectives are heard and respected and that all employees feel safe and valued.

Characteristics of Inclusive Leaders

In order to be an effective inclusive leader, there are several key characteristics we should strive to have. First, it is essential that inclusive leaders have a deep sense of empathy and understanding. This allows them to better connect with those around them and foster meaningful relationships. It also helps them to be more open-minded and respectful of differing opinions.

Inclusive leaders also need to be strong communicators. They must be able to articulate their expectations clearly, as well as listen and respond to the needs of their team members. Additionally, they should demonstrate self-awareness and emotional intelligence, so they can recognize when someone is feeling unheard or uncomfortable.

Finally, inclusive leaders should exhibit integrity and professionalism. This means having strong

moral principles, leading by example, and setting a positive tone for the workplace.

By exhibiting these characteristics, inclusive leaders can create an environment of inclusion and respect that encourages collaboration, trust, and innovation. This is especially important in the nuclear industry, where diversity of thought and experience are essential for success.

How Inclusive Leaders Create an Environment for Success

Inclusive leaders create an environment of success by creating a safe and trusting environment where everyone’s voice is heard. They foster an environment that celebrates diversity, encourages collaboration, and rewards individual contributions. By doing so, they provide everyone the opportunity to contribute to their fullest potential and the potential of the team as a whole.

Inclusive leaders are also proactive in setting expectations and developing strategies to ensure everyone is working together and that everyone is heard. They ensure that each member of the team feels valued and that all voices are taken into consideration. This helps to foster an atmosphere of respect, understanding, and trust within the team.

In addition to creating a safe and trusting environment, inclusive leaders also recognize that each person has unique strengths, experiences, and perspectives. They embrace this diversity of thought and use it to challenge the status quo and create new ideas. By doing so, they empower their team members to have the confidence to express their opinions, collaborate on projects, and think outside the box.

Finally, inclusive leaders strive for continuous improvement. They recognize that there is always more to learn and more ways to work together. They continuously monitor their team’s performance and adjust processes and practices to ensure everyone is achieving success.

Inclusive leadership is vital in the nuclear industry. It helps to ensure that all voices are heard and respected, and that everyone is contributing to their fullest potential. By creating an environment of trust, understanding, and respect, inclusive leaders can help their teams succeed.

It’s been a busy start to the year for nuclear in the media, with the big news in the Chancellor’s Budget that nuclear would be classed as environmentally sustainable in the UK Green Taxonomy. Naturally it was a big story with plenty of coverage, and a series of ‘Is nuclear green?’ explainers, including form the Guardian and BBC News.

As the Nuclear Industry Association’s boss, Tom Greatrex, explains in the opening few pages of this edition, we are following the science when we say nuclear is green. It also made the BBC Six o’clock news, which would have included an appearance from an NIA spokesperson had the transport strikes not scuppered the interview!

The NIA’s reaction to media whispers that nuclear was to get green status was covered back in February in the Daily Telegraph. The subsequent LinkedIn post was one of our most popular ever with over 30,000 impressions.

Another top performing post on the NIA’s social channels was a clip of Lincoln Hill giving evidence to the BEIS Select Committee on nuclear’s role in decarbonising the power sector. The video of the NIA’s Director of Policy and External Affairs was viewed over 7,000 times. He told the Committee that “only nuclear provides a base of firm, clean power.”

At the very end of 2022, Bloomberg News ran this headline: UK Grid Set to Pay Record Sum to Keep the Country’s Lights On. It came from some top analysis work from the NIA team who have been busy keeping track of what Britain has been paying to balance the electricity grid. And it’s a lot.

When the NIA number crunched 2022 in total, the data showed that £4 billion had been spent on balancing the grid, smashing the previous record by some distance. The analysis was exclusively covered in the Telegraph paper.

In February the BBC covered the delivery of the UK’s first reactor in 30 years, which arrived at the Hinkley Point C site in Somerset.

The incredible images of the 13-metre, 500-tonne reactor were released by EDF, showing the journey which started in France before arriving by barge and then driven with extreme care and pin point accuracy to the site. The momentous delivery of the reactor pressure vessel was covered widely in the media, including in the Daily Express, which quoted the NIA’s Tom Greatrex.

TV presenter Guy Martin visited three key nuclear sites for his Great British Power Trip series on Channel 4.

In the series’ third and final programme, the Lincolnshire mechanic spent the day as part of the Hinkley Point C workforce, (safely!) handled nuclear waste at Sellafield and joined physicists at Culham in Oxford, even controlling their £70m fusion machine. It’s a great watch and a brilliant opportunity to see some of the industry’s best in action. Catch up on All 4!

SA electricity crisis

South Africa’s government declared a national state of disaster to respond to the ongoing electricity crisis.

Persistent loadshedding is impeding recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and events including catastrophic flooding that struck parts of the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and North West last year.

The president last July unveiled a five-point action plan to address an electricity generation shortfall of 4000 to 6000 MW, with key interventions to transform the electricity sector to achieve long-term energy security.

Poland’s Industria selects Rolls-Royce SMR for green energy plans

Rolls-Royce SMR and Polish group Industria have signed a Memorandum of Intent to collaborate on deploying SMRs in the country.

Industria is state-owned, part of Industrial Development Agency JSC, and has selected the Rolls-Royce SMR for the Central Hydrogen Cluster, with plans to produce 50,000 tonnes of low-carbon hydrogen each year.

There could be “up to three” SMRs as part of the scheme to decarbonise the regional energy infrastructure.

Rolls-Royce SMR said there may also be “opportunities to replace more than 8GW of coal-fired power plants in southern Poland with SMRs throughout the 2030s”.

Poland is in the process of a largescale switch towards nuclear energy as part of its decarbonisation plans.

China starts building long-distance nuclear heating pipeline

Construction has begun of a 23-kilommetre pipeline to transport nuclear-generated heat from the Haiyang power plant in China’s Shandong province to a wider area. The plant started providing district heat to the surrounding area in November 2020.

Installation of equipment at unit 2 of the Haiyang plant to extract heat began in July last year and has now been completed. The heating pipe network and pumping station in the plant are now being constructed. The project is planned to be put into operation before the end of 2023.

The long-distance pipeline will have an annual heating capacity that can reach 9.7 million gigajoules, providing heat to a 13 million square metre area and meeting the needs of 1 million residents. Replacing the consumption of some 900,000 tonnes of coal, this

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

will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 1.65 million tonnes.

Second Belgian reactor enters retirement

Unit 2 of the Tihange nuclear power plant in Belgium has been permanently shut down after 40 years of operation. The 1008 MWe pwr is the second to be shut down under the country’s nuclear phase out policy.

Operator Electrabel said that shortly after the 31 January shutdown, operators will open the reactor for one final time, remove all the fuel and transfer it to the cooling pools. In order to remove as much radioactivity from the reactor systems as possible, workers will flush the primary circuit with a chemical solution.

In 2024, operators will begin transferring the already sufficiently cooled fuel elements (from previous reactor operating cycles) from the cooling pools to special storage and transport containers. The cooling pools are expected to be completely emptied of fuel in 2027.

Belgium’s nuclear plants account for almost half of the country’s electricity production. The country’s federal law of 31 January 2003 requires the phaseout of all nuclear electricity generation. Most of Belgium’s nuclear capacity will be phased out by 2025.

Holtec’s bid to power 9 million UK homes with fleet of its SMR-160

Holtec, a worldwide leader in spent nuclear fuel storage and technical solutions for the nuclear industry, has completed the first phase of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission’s three-phase Vendor Design Review and is undergoing pre-application engagement activities with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. We also recently announced our application to start the GDA of SMR-160 in the UK.

Our company’s goal is to deploy a fleet of SMR160s, providing over a fifth of Britain’s 24 GW nuclear target by 2050, to bring reliable and affordable electricity and heat to 9 million households and businesses. Last year we applied to the UK Government for funding support towards the GDA.

Our next generation SMR-160 is a Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR) technology based on existing regulations in the US and UK and uses PWR fuel, similar to that already used at Sizewell B, and soon at Hinkley Point C. This will enable standardization of the front-end and back-end of the nuclear fuel cycle, supporting common facilities and equipment for production, storage, and disposal of fuel, to be economically competitive.

In parallel to the licensing preparation activities, Holtec is also working to setup our supply chain to deliver its first UK SMR-160 project. We have teamed with Hyundai Engineering and Construction (HDEC) and Balfour Beatty to advance the planning for construction of the reactors in the UK. Holtec recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Sheffield Forgemasters to jointly develop the design for manufacture and specifications for forgings, which followed a separate agreement signed last year with Global Energy Group on manufacturing and engineering. These UK agreements build upon our international supply chain, which includes HDEC, Mitsubishi Electric and Framatome.

With the SMR-160 Standard Design being completed this year, our GDA will focus on the US-UK regulatory differences. Holtec has selffunded the major development activities itself for well over a decade. Our proposed two-step

The international energy technology company recently submitted its entry application for the Generic Design Assessment (GDA) of its SMR-160 in the UK, with its sights set on powering Britain to its energy security and net zero targets. Here, Gareth Thomas, the Director of Holtec Britain, the firm’s UK arm, explains how it intends to get there, and how disused coal plants could hold the key.

GDA project includes substantial UK content and is prepared to support economic advantages to previously challenged economic areas.

Following completion of Step 2 of the GDA, we intend on moving to site licensing for the first SMR-160 construction project, having already identified potential UK sites suitable for hosting the first wave reactors. At its peak, the UK programme is expected to support over 10,000 jobs.

One advantage of our SMR design is to allow us to repurpose shuttered coal plants, by replacing the coal boiler plant with an SMR-160 nuclear power plant, enabling much of a coal-fired plant’s infrastructure, including the high voltage substation and transmission lines to be repurposed. Thousands of coal-burning plants around the world presently consigned to premature decommissioning can instead be re-purposed as productive clean energy generating assets. A study published in 2022 by the US Department of Energy found that hundreds of coal power plant sites across the US could be converted to nuclear plant sites, providing huge decarbonization gains as well as bringing tangible economic, employment and environmental benefits to the communities where those plants are located. We are also developing a highly efficient solar collector technology that can be co-located with SMR-160 reactors to coax additional power from the sun using the land no longer needed for coal and ash handling, and storage facilities at the coal-fired plants. We expect the energy demand to be met 24/7 by deploying the Holtec Green Boiler, which can store surplus electricity generated by nuclear, solar or wind. This is a heavily insulated thermal energy storage device with integral steam generators capable of producing superheated high-pressure steam for a diverse range of applications, including hydrogen production. Each module can be charged/ discharged over a 24 hour period, which each module storing 300 million BTU.

Our goal at Holtec is to be “A Generation Ahead by Design”, and this work helps us continue to strive to help future generations with clean, green power for decades to come.

GARETH

The promise of digital in nuclear

The recent breakthrough in fusion technology has shone a new light and created excitement within the nuclear industry, even if its potential has only so far been demonstrated on a small scale. This development, combined with the ongoing need for energy security and affordability, has resulted in clear cross-political party support for new technologies in the UK.

Of course, we all know that nuclear power plants remain a construction, design and knowledge management challenge, as shown by frequent overruns and mounting costs .costs. However, key technologies—already available to us—could deliver quicker, cheaper nuclear power in the coming years.

How digital can address the project challenges

The starting point is how do we deliver on the types of challenges the industry is already facing.

What we frequently hear from nuclear engineers and operators is that they want to make decisions based on a controlled view of data, record delivery against their shared project plan, and ensure regulatory compliance without creating burdensome procedures. All these processes are better enabled through the use of digital.

Some examples of key capabilities that could be delivered through current technologies and make a tangible difference to new nuclear in the next 5-10 years include:

● Using 3D models to design, develop and test the project before construction commences.

● Keeping costs down by updating technical specifications digitally so that they can be embedded in project management from an early stage.

● Allowing management to review delivery in real-time and remotely so that mistakes can be identified early.

● Enabling collaboration and consistency for the many different partners working across a project by having a single version of the truth ‘the digital thread’ across the project.

These are the kind of capabilities that will help government, operators and regulators avoid the pitfalls of previous projects at the exact point at which we seek to deliver new nuclear in the UK. Using digital technologies, even in the context of a single nuclear plant, will benefit hugely both in terms of costs reduction and speed of delivery.

Investment in the workforce

Building out digital capabilities must be an essential element of the UK’s future ambitions on nuclear. However, to fully harness its power, the nuclear industry needs to ensure it is appealing to the workforce of the future, and that it is upskilling its current workforce on digital and other emerging technologies.

This could include, for example, conducting training in a digital environment, such as in a virtual or augmented reality. This will increase confidence, enhance learning and skills, as well as improving safety for the individuals involved.

In addition, learning from mistakes in the digital environment can help employees overcome challenges in a way that would be costly and dangerous if they were to happen on-site.

Using digital capability will not only encourage and attract a new wave of talent to the sector but will also speed up development times on projects as it allows mistakes to be made and corrected in the digital environment first.

Learning from other industries

When it comes to applying digital, collaboration is key—and nuclear can learn from other industries. For example, the aerospace and automotive industries have been collaborating with their supply chains on designing, modelling, and simulating on a single platform through a virtual twin—as seen with Dassault Systèmes work with Airbus.

Virtual twins go beyond the concept of digital twins. Digital twins are simply a digital form of an object, its virtual version. However, virtual twins provide the ability to 3D model everything around you and then test and simulate to ensure your model is perfected.

Technologies such as virtual twins can help manage knowledge and coordinate learnings from complex engineering methods across sectors by storing information on one place, accessible to all those who need it.

Using tried and tested approaches from other industries will allow nuclear players to increase their competitive advantage by accelerating processes and facilitating new ways of working. It also allows for mistakes made by other sectors to be bypassed, creating more time for creativity and success.

Digital solutions must be fit for purpose

There are limited examples within the nuclear industry of virtual twins being used to accelerate project progress.

It’s therefore important to establish what the key questions are regarding where new technologies can offer the most benefits. There is a clear need to identify problems before offering solutions related to how digital tools can help solve them.

Solutions such as task automation can have a huge benefit for nuclear—allowing complex operations to be optimised in the digital environment. Schedule optimisation connects top-down planning with emergent issues, determining risk to operations and operators in the 4D reality. Scheduled operations can then be assessed for human factors planning, tailoring individuals for operations to ensure safe completion, and support the home-safe objective.

Virtual twin technology can also play a role in promoting efficiencies and more effective ways of working with new technologies such as fusion and small modular reactors.

When looking forward to the future of the nuclear industry, it’s important to remember that digital solutions and expertise are crucial to pushing the boundaries of sustainable innovation, collaboration, and production.

Only by removing the burden of cumbersome administration and data processing tasks will the workforce of tomorrow be able to focus on activities that add value, such as problem-solving, governance and safety critical areas. Digital technologies will help empower stakeholders within the industry with collaborative, innovative solutions to do that, propelling the nuclear sector forward towards the UK’s net zero targets.

How to value social outcomes in the nuclear sector

Defining social value

Social value is a long-term commitment made by an organisation to create a positive return for all stakeholders through collective impact. According to Social Value International, social value is defined as the quantification of the relative importance that people place on the changes they experience in their lives.

At Costain, we define social value as the action we take to improve people’s wellbeing, whether that’s through the services we provide or the way we operate. The social outcomes and the shared value we create, help address critical national needs and contribute to the objectives of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The principles that underpin our approach minimising our impact on the environment and supporting the communities we work in are also driving change across all industries. They’re at the heart of the Public Services (Social Value) Act, which was introduced in 2012 and has led to a more robust stance on sustainability during the procurement of major projects. And they’re important to our stakeholders, who are more informed and empowered than ever before and expect us to change people’s lives for the better.

Our experience in working with clients to maximise the social value on schemes, both as consultant and programme manager, means we understand the realities of improving people’s lives through the life of a project, as well as beyond. It also makes us acutely aware of the pitfalls of looking at social value through too narrow a lens.

No two areas of the UK are the same, so the way people in each community define value will differ. Supporting people into jobs may be a national priority and a worthwhile endeavour in a town

struggling to address worklessness. But it’s less so if that’s not a challenge that members of that community face.

A sustainable approach to resilient communities

Social value needs to be sufficiently broad for us to make decisions and shift to a values-based approach in our business cases. For infrastructure assets, the value can be both the intrinsic, and the extrinsic impact of the asset, on the wellbeing of society, throughout its lifecycle.

Intrinsic value is the social value ‘belonging naturally and essential’ to an asset. An example of this is the Tideway project where the intrinsic value of the super sewer is in cleaning up the river Thames. The intrinsic value is an important part of ‘why’ the asset is being built.

Extrinsic value is the wider value over and above the intrinsic value of the asset and is not essential to the functioning of the asset. On Tideway, this was social value that is not essential to the delivery of the project.

Clearly defining the extrinsic social value wanted from the Tideway project from the beginning has shaped the project delivery from procurement, through to community and staff engagement. The community volunteering, the work with people who were not in employment, education or training, skills and development programmes, and the biodiversity planning, were not essential to the delivery of the asset itself, but they have all amplified the positive impact of this multibillion-pound capital investment programme. Choices like this help to achieve our vision for a built environment that delivers better outcomes for people and the planet.

Social value is a fundamental shift in thinking and, therefore, this needs to be undertaken collaboratively with all of the stakeholders.

The lives of individuals and their communities can be transformed by proactively seeking out positive social and economic outcomes that create social value: you become part of the community and you can realise the opportunities to do more than deliver the project on time and on budget. The potential of the infrastructure industry at large to contribute more to the economic and social prosperity of the UK is an additional driver to do social value better on each and every scheme.

Research that Costain is leading, and years of delivering targeted social value on complex programmes, highlights some issues with defining and measuring social value effectively such as the value being created changes over time and varies between industries and regions.

What does that mean for infrastructure owners and operators and the delivery supply chain? How can we demonstrate what good looks like and evidence improvement if it’s difficult to benchmark and measure? And what impact will it have on alternative financing options, such as social impact investing?

The increased level of green financing is likely to increase the need for even more robust reporting on social value and it may be that improving visibility and trust in social outcomes could reduce the cost of finance for infrastructure projects.

Contributing to communities in Cumbria

Costain (as part of the Nexus Decommissioning Alliance) has been supporting Sellafield on its Decommissioning Delivery Partnership (DDP) since it commenced in 2016. The Framework is a long term 10-year contract enabling accelerated risk and hazard reduction, providing capacity and capability to deliver decommissioning tasks and projects.

The DDP social impact plan has been developed in alignment with Sellafield’s social impact objectives: Resilient Economies, Thriving Communities, Social Value Chains, Sustainable Incomes, Collective Impact, and Improve Performance, as well as SiX, Sellafield’s new social impact programme.

Activity to drive economic growth, sustainable workforces, and improved wellbeing

1. Creating a thriving, dynamic and multi-purpose youth and community hub

The DDP, with Costain taking a lead, is supporting the renovation of a community centre that’s not only a safe space for local young people, but will provide a range of positive activities, interventions, and services to all members of the community with the aim of significantly improving wellbeing, aspirations and community engagement.

2. Wellbeing and mental health support

Costain has been a collaborative partner supporting a range of valuable initiatives and projects driven by Alison Young from The Decommissioning Alliance. These have included local mental health first aider courses, the Brilliant Cumbria initiative which centres on building resilience in school children and the Terry Newton Grass Roots Project, a project that works with West Cumbria’s rugby and football clubs, breaking down mental health stigma, supporting with suicide prevention and raising mental health awareness.

3. Leaving a legacy for future generations

Focus has been given to activities that create self-reliance and independence and access to sustainable incomes beyond Sellafield by increasing skills, knowledge, aspirations and access to communities. As an example, Costain recruited four young people from the Phoenix Youth Project to research and prepare a community action plan in Cleator Moor. Residents identified a need for healthy eating guidance, a desire for financial management to be brought into the curriculum for primary school children, and a stakeholder forum to bring key actors in the community together to effect real change.

Infrastructure professionals are recognising that this is our moment to shift that paradigm towards valuebased decision-making. Communities need support to ensure their futures and environments are sustainable. Infrastructure can have a central role in better life actions, improved mental health, higher productivity and improved skills and educational outcomes for local communities, why would you not design all projects with value-based outcomes?

To discover more visit www.costain.com or contact one of our experts to understand how you can maximise social value on your project: john.edwards1@costain.com.

In January this year, more than seventy British engineering, construction and manufacturing companies met over the course of two days at a hotel in Bristol to discuss the delivery of a Generation IV advanced modular reactor, the Xe-100.

The technology, a high temperature gas-cooled reactor, is being prepared for delivery by reactor and fuel manufacturer, X-energy, and its UK deployment partner, Cavendish Nuclear.

HTGRs are the AMR technology being backed by UK Government support programmes. The Xe-100 is capable of producing 80MW electric and 200MW thermal energy, typically in packs of four.

Carol Tansley, Vice President of UK New Build at X-energy, says the recent supply chain engagement was characterised by the sound of pennies dropping for everyone involved.

“We shared detailed information on the X-energy design and construction methodology to show just how close to market we are with the Xe-100 technology. It’s advanced nuclear in terms of readiness, not just capabilities.”

“I think the myth has been slayed that all AMRs are a distant future prospect,” she says. “There is nothing that says the UK must follow a strict sequence of ‘known quantity’ GW scale plants, followed by larger light water SMRs when ready and proven, followed further down the line by AMRs.”

“At the same time, it was clear to us from the discussions that there is a breadth of capability potentially available in the UK, ranging from construction expertise to the manufacture of specialist graphite, capable of growing over time to support a long term build programme.

“There is a good fit with X-energy’s ethos of using off-the-shelf solutions where appropriate. The opportunity in the UK is huge, not just in terms of energy security and decarbonisation, but in the scope available for the UK supply chain. We can see potential for up to 10 ‘four packs’ of the Xe-100 in the UK and our goal would be for 80% of the value of projects to flow to UK companies.”

Mick Gornall, Managing Director of Cavendish Nuclear, says the ability to target industrial heat as well as electricity is a great step forward. “The well-progressed status of X-energy’s technology and the long-standing capability of Cavendish and the UK supply chain in gas-cooled reactor technology can truly accelerate cross-sector energy security and decarbonisation.”

The Xe-100 technology has already been selected for demonstration by the US Government and is scheduled to begin operation in the US in the 2020s. The company this month announced that its first plant will be at a site on the Gulf Coast, owned by materials science giant Dow, a customer for both heat and power.

X-energy has secured $1.2bn dollars of federal funding and raised over $500m of further investment from a mix of investors. It is planning to float on the New York Stock Exchange later this year via a business combination with the Ares infrastructure investment fund.

The x-factor: delivering deepdecarbonisation from nuclear heat and power

X-energy’s Carol Tansley says solutions to the toughest decarbonisation challenges in heat and transport are part of the journey to domestic energy security.

▲ XE-100 Reactor

Tansley says the UK Xe-100 programme can be a ‘fast-follower’, with operation of the first unit in Britain around 2030, assuming it’s accepted for Generic Design Assessment this year.

“We’re gearing up for deployment. The Xe-100 can deliver on the UK Government’s priorities in terms of electricity production. But the bonus is the higher-temperature heat and steam that goes beyond what conventional small modular reactors can supply and is the key to the difficult, deep decarbonisation needed for industry.

“HTGRs are a known quantity in the UK because of EDF’s AGR fleet. We have a huge domestic skill set which can for the first time be dedicated towards capitalising on heat use as well as electricity. Obvious applications include hydrogen production, and replacement of fossil fuelgenerated heat for industrial processes.”

X-energy and Cavendish are in constructive discussions with EDF Energy about the prospect of deploying Xe-100s at Hartlepool.

“This is an ideal site with the operating AGR plant right on the doorstep of the Teesside industrial cluster”, says Tansley.

“We’ve been speaking to the local authorities, elected community representatives and local industrial and development companies. There’s a real appetite not just to decarbonise existing industry, but to align regional net zero development strategies and projects to bring high paying jobs and investment in new clean facilities which rely on both electricity and high volumes of high temperature heat.

In Tennessee, X-energy’s sister company, Triso-X, has this year also begun work on a manufacturing plant for the ‘Tri-structural Isotropic fuel’ that the Xe-100 and other AMRs will use.

Tansley says there is a strong case for fuel manufacture in the UK and the company is exploring options for manufacturing partnerships which could further boost not just domestic security of supply, but job creation and investment.

“We’re keen to see the Government press ahead with its ambitious plans for a programme of nuclear power stations, including the establishment of the Great British Nuclear body. We believe we can follow hard on the heels of our US programme and deliver first power around 2030, supporting the UK’s energy security and environmental goals, in particular the drive to deliver 24GW of new nuclear power by 2050.”

▲ EDF has a publicly stated ambition to see an HTGR built at Hartlepool and has been assessing the merits of technologies including the Xe-100

▲ TRISO-X Pebble

▲ XE-100 4 Pack Plant

▲ TRISO Particle

Companies interested in working with X-energy and Cvendish Nuclear on the UK programme can contact the companies at supplychain@x-energy.com

At just 13-metres long and weighing 500-tonnes, the “reactor pressure vessel” will create the heat needed to make steam for the world’s largest turbines.

It is the first of two nuclear reactors which will be installed at Hinkley Point C. Each reactor will help provide enough low carbon electricity for 3-million homes and will be vital in helping Britain achieve Net Zero and stronger energy security.

The reactor, made by Framatome in France, comes from the same factory which made the last nuclear reactor for a British power station at Sizewell B in Suffolk. It became operational in 1995.

The reactor first arrived in Britain at Avonmouth Docks in Bristol before being transported by barge to Combwich Wharf on the River Parrett in Somerset. The final journey was a 5-hour trip for 4 miles by a transporter to its permanent home on the construction site.

The arrival of the reactor marks a significant milestone for Hinkley Point C, where more than 8,000 workers are now on site every day. It will be installed in the reactor building after the dome is lifted into place.

The first new nuclear reactor for a British power station for more than 30 years has arrived in Somerset

WE’VE SET OUR VISION FOR TRAWSFYNYDD TO BE THE FIRST SITE IN THE UK TO DEPLOY SMRS

Photo by v2osk on Unsplash — https://unsplash.com/photos/7jcjBO7my84?utm

Alan Raymant, Chief Executive, Cwmni Egino

Cwmni Egino is the Welsh Government-backed company set up to progress potential new projects and provide opportunities for north west Wales. Last year it set out its ambition for Trawsfynydd to become the site of the first small scale nuclear station in the UK. We sat down with Alan to talk about what’s next for Cwmni Egino and for nuclear in Wales.

North Wales has a rich nuclear heritage and tradition, what’s behind the drive to reignite the industry there?

“New nuclear developments offer a great opportunity to bring jobs, supply chain and other socio-economic benefits to the region. We have two excellent nuclear sites, a solid infrastructure of skills and expertise built over many decades, and supportive communities. The policy landscape for nuclear is now clearer than ever and North Wales is strongly positioned to lead the way towards net zero and energy security.”

What is Cwmni Egino’s role in shaping the future of nuclear in Wales?

“Cwmni Egino was established by the Welsh Government to unlock the full socio-economic benefits of developing a nuclear project at the site of the former power station in Trawsfynydd. We’ve set our vision for Trawsfynydd to be the first site in the UK to deploy SMRs with construction starting as early as 2027. We believe that kick starting the SMR programme at Trawsfynydd will lead to a nuclear sector renaissance, not only in Wales, but across the UK.

“Our role, as the project development company for the site, is to bring all the necessary components together to develop an SMR project that can be ready for approval in the next Parliament in line with the UK Government’s energy security priorities.”

What needs to happen to make sure nuclear projects in Wales are delivered?

“The Welsh Government has already taken an innovative and bold step in setting Cwmni Egino up as a standalone company developing a specific site, as opposed to promoting a technology. The British Energy Security Strategy was also a significant step, and has enhanced the UK policy backdrop for new nuclear projects.

“What’s needed now is for this policy intent to be translated into a clear and funded programme for new nuclear, including SMRs, which we hope will be one of the first tasks for Great British Nuclear. The key thing for us at this stage is to secure strong sponsorship from the UK Government, as well as Welsh Government, and get certainty that Trawsfynydd is one of the initial sites they want to take forward.”

“We’re offering a solution that can enable Government to seize the benefits of SMRs and boost the nuclear programme more widely promoting investment, growth, and job creation across the UK.”

Trawsfynydd is a very unique site, what excites you about it?

“Trawsfynydd is ideally suited for small scale nuclear generation and lends itself to be the first site for SMRs in the UK. Not only because of its size, but also because it is a former nuclear site, with land in NDA ownership, and a range of recognised assets including an adjacent supergrid sub-station. There’s also existing skills and experience within the region and support for new nuclear locally. Most importantly, the site presents a fantastic opportunity for social and economic growth and much needed well-paid, long term jobs in the area.

“We are already working to fast-track SMR development at Trawsfynydd, and the progress we’ve made to date demonstrates that it is an attractive site and the most advanced SMR project. It’s a huge benefit that Cwmni Egino provides a development vehicle to drive this forward and kick start the deployment of SMR in the UK.”

Are we about to see a shift change in new nuclear in the UK?

“Developments over the last year show things are going in the right direction. The UK can’t afford not to invest in new nuclear if we have any chance of meeting net zero and energy security objectives. We need a clearly defined programme to be delivered at pace.

“The Energy Security Strategy is a call to arms and requires early action. The policies are in place. What we need to do now is focus on delivery and outcomes. At Cwmni Egino we are doing that now, and working collaboratively to bring our plans for Trawsfynydd to reality and delivering for people on the ground. To realise these plans, we need early confirmation that Trawsfynydd is one of the initial projects to be developed and decisions on technology choice and funding for the development phase.

Wales has very ambitious climate targets how much can nuclear be a part of that solution?

“Nuclear must be a part of the solution; it’s a vital part of the low carbon energy mix. Decarbonising the power system is one of the greatest climate challenges of our time, and with electricity demand set to increase significantly we need to be investing in all kinds of clean energy sources. Nuclear is currently the only proven source of low carbon baseload power at scale and is needed to supplement the growing proportion of variable wind and solar generation.”

UK takes major STEP

As part of the quest for abundant low-carbon energy without the need for fossil fuels, Science Minister George Freeman announced the creation of the new delivery body for the UK’s fusion programme.

Fusion energy represents a burgeoning industry in which the UK is already a world-leader, as demonstrated by the record-setting results from experiments conducted at UKAEA’s JET facility last year, with the potential to not only power the world but deliver vast economic growth across the country.

On the visit to the future site of the UK’s prototype fusion energy plant at West Burton A, the Science Minister urged energy companies and investors to recognise the vast potential fusion energy could have for both the UK and the wider world.

The Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) plant will be constructed by 2040 to demonstrate the ability to use fusion energy to generate electricity for the UK grid.

Magnetic confinement fusion, the approach to generate fusion that will be demonstrated in STEP, occurs when a mix of two forms of hydrogen are heated to extreme temperatures 10 times hotter than the core of the sun fuse together to create helium and release huge amounts of energy.

The energy created from fusion can be used to generate electricity in the same way as existing power stations. Fusion is many million times more efficient than burning coal, oil or gas and the raw materials needed to provide the fuel for fusion are readily available in nature. However, a number of significant technical hurdles remain, which the STEP programme is set up to address.

The STEP programme intends to pave the way to the commercialisation of fusion and the potential development of a fleet of future plants around the world, driving forward the UK’s global leadership in this innovative sector.

The announcement comes shortly after a major breakthrough for fusion in the US where its National Ignition Facility in California conducted fusion experiments which released more energy than was put in

by the lab’s enormous, high-powered lasers, a landmark achievement known as energy gain.

“Fusion energy now has the potential to transform our world for the better by harnessing the same process powering the sun to provide cheap, abundant, low-carbon energy across the world.

“The UK is the world-leader in fusion science and technology, and now we are moving to turn fusion from cutting edge science into a billionpound clean energy industry to create thousands of UK jobs across the UK, grow exports and drive regeneration of this former coalfield site through a fusion innovation cluster in Nottinghamshire.

“That’s why I’m delighted to announce the creation of Industrial Fusion Solutions as the vehicle for industrial development and deployment of this technology as a new clean energy source in the coming decades.”

George Freeman, Science and Innovation Minister

Alongside the establishment of the new organisation, we are beginning to map out our future skills requirements and, as part of this, we are committing to the development of a STEP Skills Centre at West Burton. This will enable us to provide as many opportunities as possible to people across the area.

We look forward to working with people in the region to develop our ambitious plans and realising broader social and economic benefits.

The new organisation will be a company limited by shares established to work together with industry to deliver the prototype plant by 2040. Recruitment for the Chair of UKIFS has now launched.

As part of the visit, Science Minister George Freeman also announced an immediate commitment to create the STEP Skills Centre at West Burton, a major boost during National Apprenticeship Week. He also spoke with local apprentices currently working at the UKAEA Culham campus, and key local stakeholders.

In February, the government established UK Industrial Fusion Solutions (UKIFS) to deliver a prototype fusion energy plant at in Nottinghamshire.

“ THE ESTABLISHMENT OF INDUSTRIAL FUSION SOLUTIONS WILL ENABLE STEP TO ACCELERATE ITS JOURNEY TOWARDS DELIVERY OF ELECTRICITY FROM FUSION ENERGY TO THE GRID.”

Professor Sir Ian Chapman, UKAEA Chief Executive

Welcome to Nottinghamshire

Over 100 people from 65 companies travelled to West Burton in North Nottinghamshire at a recent event hosted by UKAEA to find out more about the challenges and opportunities in building the UK’s fusion energy prototype powerplant (STEP programme).

The full day event was aimed at industry and attended by representatives from companies who are interested in working with UKAEA on the STEP Programme in the future.

Split into two parts; the event began with a morning of vehicle tours around the site at West Burton, to show the location where the future

STEP Prototype Powerplant will be built, followed by networking and a series of presentations.

Commenting on the event, Paul Methven, UKAEA’s Director of STEP, said: “The combination of being on the physical site and the excellent technical detail which was presented enabled industry see both the scale of the challenge and the scale of the opportunity.

“In addition, and perhaps most importantly, these events in person give industry the chance to talk to each other and find potential partners to span the breadth of capabilities we will need.”

To sign-up for the latest STEP updates visit step.ukaea.uk

The Opportunity for Nuclear Energy to Decarbonise the Transport Sector

In recent years the policy debate has intensified around the role of nuclear in decarbonising several sectors beyond electricity, and its role in the wider net zero strategy.

However over the past few months, there have been several positive endorsements of nuclear power, with one of the standouts being the development of the Department for Transport’s Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) mandate, which has been looking for potential interventions which could accelerate the SAF industry.

After consultation, the Government’s draft mandate labels SAF from nuclear energy as ‘Power to Liquid’, or synthetic fuel, this is SAF which is not produced from biogenic sources, such as crops, wood waste or refuse.

Furthermore, nuclear will soon be included in the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation (RTFO), and the recent Budget confirmed that nuclear, subject to consultation, will be eligible for sustainable green finance.

The importance of nuclear appearing in these policies should not be understated. Never before has there been a direct policy link between nuclear and the end sectors which it can decarbonise. In the same way as electric cars are run on nuclear produced electricity, Government policy now recognises, and puts funding into, solutions which start with nuclear energy, and end with decarbonising transatlantic flights.

The opportunity for nuclear energy to support SAF production and help decarbonise the aviation industry is a subset of the broader opportunity for nuclear to decarbonise the greater transport sector, and the production of a wide range of ‘synthetic fuels’ to support net zero, including ammonia production for shipping.

The term ‘synthetic fuel’ is not new. It has been around for decades, and refers to the manufacture of hydrocarbon-based fuels where the carbon feedstock required to make the fuels is extracted from point-sources or directly from the air, instead of from fossil fuels buried in the ground.

At the highest level this means that we can in theory and where required, fuel our planes, ships, lorries, buses, cars, motorbikes and more, with fuel that is equivalent to the fossil fuels we use today, but without the associated net greenhouse gas emissions from extraction, transporting and burning, releasing even more CO2 into the atmosphere.

The similarity to fossil fuels would also lessen the need to change infrastructure or engine design at the point of use to accommodate new energy sources, like what would be necessary with using pure hydrogen and electricity.

Therefore, it’s no surprise that the use of synthetic fuels is being taken seriously in decarbonisation policies. Government is starting to put into place interventions that will encourage a future industry in synthetic fuel production.

Currently, the opportunity for nuclear energy to support transport fuels production is steadily developing in the UK. While we are seeing a long sought after amendment to the RTFO, the European Commission recently reasserted its negative position towards nuclear when updating their policy for hydrogen fuel production.

Yet if synthetic fuels is such a promising answer to decarbonising transport, why is this solution not already off the ground?

Firstly, we need an awful lot of low carbon energy in the form of electricity and heat to drive the required process industries, including extracting CO2 or nitrogen from the environment, plus hydrogen production, and then driving the fuel synthesis processes. This needs infrastructure that can deliver the energy where and when it is needed, which for synthetic fuels production means a lot of continuous high-grade power all in the same place, right where the synthetic fuels plant is located. It takes time to build out such infrastructure, so decisions are needed early to make an impact on net zero.

Secondly, current projects seeking similar outcomes largely utilise point-sources of CO2, for example from industrial processes, but the longterm viability and scalability of this is limited and crucially isn’t carbon neutral, but rather recycles CO2, halving emissions at best.

Thirdly, we need market arrangements and project developments that consider the whole energy lifecycle, which in the case of nuclear involves taking a systems approach to planning and designing nuclear and synthetic fuel plant deployments in the scale of GWs. This is exactly the same approach we have today for combined heat and power stations used for fossil fuel refining: off grid energy production and consumption in the same vicinity, on a GW scale.

The difference is that instead of using the energy for refining, in the instance of aviation fuel it is used for:

● Extracting CO2 from the atmosphere by Direct Air Capture;

● Desalinating the water needed for hydrogen production;

● Powering hydrogen production, either by electrolysis or in future thermochemical processes;

● Driving fuel synthesis and in some cases hydrocracking.

The general outdated premise is that in order for this process to be low carbon, the energy sources must be renewable. Indeed, many studies on the topic find the need to take far-reaching assumptions to make the system work. For example, some studies assume a need to overbuild synthetic fuels plants by two to three times, then operate them at reduced capacity factor, to accommodate the variability in renewable output. They also assume the necessary heat is available by electrical means, which further increases demand on energy production.

Hence, the intermittent and dispersed nature of renewables, and the lack of direct heat, does not comfortably lend itself to the production of synthetic fuels at a scale required to meet Government targets to decarbonise the transport sector. In addition, delivering the quantity of energy required to operate these plants from dispersed resources represents a difficult task, with the job of rolling out renewables being challenging enough to meet ever-increasing electrification requirements.

Adding nuclear energy to the mix and providing the environment for it compete could be a game changer in terms of both scale and cost. The attributes of nuclear energy are well suited to high-scale production of synthetic fuels. A high capacity, non-intermittent energy source providing heat and electricity 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for off grid applications with the option for exporting electricity to shore up the national grid when its needed.

If the UK can steal a march on the rest of the world, then we also have the chance to be a major exporter of net zero compliant synthetic fuels, bringing the many associated economic and social benefits that can be derived from a global market, creating jobs across the entire nuclear and process industries supply chain.

A recent report released by the Nuclear Industry Association discusses the scale of the challenge in front of us to decarbonise transport and the role of nuclear energy in synthetic fuel production. The report, titled “The Opportunity for Economy

Scale Production of Synthetic Fuels from Nuclear Energy” explores this golden opportunity, and provides a number of industrial and policy recommendations which are required to stimulate deployment projects.

Equilibrion Limited, who supported NIA in the production of the report, is a new company and NIA member focused on the application of nuclear energy for decarbonisation in a range of energy end use sectors. The report can be found on the NIA website at niauk.org/synthetic-fuels.

For synthetic aviation fuel production nuclear electricity and heat can provide:

Desalination

Providing the clean water required for hydrogen production

Hydrogen production

Delivering electricity and steam to electrolysers for high efficiency hydrogen production

Carbon capture tech

Extracting CO2 directly from the environment creating a closed carbon loop in the production and use of synthetic fuels

Carbon monoxide

Reduction of CO2 to CO as required for the fuel synthesis either through electrolysis or the water gas shift reaction

Fuel synthesis

Electricity to drive traditional and innovative batch processes on a large scale

Hydrocracking

Hydrogen for the cracking of long chain hydro-carbons to produce fuels

Since Nuclear Week in Parliament in 2021, the war in Ukraine, coinciding with increased inflation and record energy prices has highlighted the need for government to strengthen energy independence, cut gas use and bring down bills. While, as an Industry, we know nuclear is a no-regrets option to resolve the current energy crisis, we must convey this to Parliamentarians and Peers who are at the centre of decisionmaking within Westminster.

At the NIA, we aim to provide our members with a platform to speak to Parliamentarians and convey what they need to see changed across Government. While the NIA has existing relationships with MPs, our members allow us to drive up support from their MPs, who may not ordinarily be pro-nuclear. It was great to see so many companies hold their own complimentary events on the fringes, which allowed our industry to reach more MPs than ever before.

Seeing how well-received Nuclear Week is in the Parliamentary calendar was excellent. Over 100 MPs attended all three NIA events, which kicked off on Monday evening. Dr Tim Stone, Virginia Crosbie MP and Julia Pyke spoke at our Welcome Reception, centring on Great British Nuclear. Colleagues and invited members were clear to MPs that on GBN, we must form it, fund it, and let’s go with a real programme of new nuclear construction. Our energy security, prosperity and net zero future are at stake.

On Tuesday, our Skills & Apprenticeships Fair was attended by over 100 apprentices from 17 NIA members. Apprentices spoke to Toby Perkins MP (Shadow Minister for Skills and Education), Sir Graham Brady and a range of cross-party MPs. We were delighted to hear from MPs how impressed they were by all our apprentices and their enthusiasm for the nuclear sector—many stated it highlighted the need to invest in nuclear to create more apprenticeships in the future. Apprentice of the Year Kerry Jackson conveyed this message excellently and was joined by Charlotte Nichols MP and Corhyn Parr. On behalf of the NIA, thank you to all apprentices and graduates who spoke to MPs and Peers about the great work they do in the nuclear sector.

The NIA ended the week by hosting the British Nuclear Showcase Reception. With over 160 attendees, we were delighted to have Grant Shapps, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero give a keynote speech. Alongside fellow speakers, Lord McNicol, Tom Greatrex, Sophie MacfarlaneSmith and Simon Barber, the industry reiterated to Mr Shapps that Great British Nuclear must be set up immediately with the required funding and skills in place.

From a personal perspective, the highlight of the reception goes to Createc’s Spot the Robotic Dog from Boston Dynamics. Spot drew attention from plenty of MPs after walking through Central Lobby after Prime Ministers’ Questions and we took the opportunity to reiterate our core Nuclear Week messages.

A nuclear society: Rebuilding perceptions of nuclear energy

The nuclear industry has historically had a fairly tumultuous relationship with wider society. Early perceptions of nuclear energy were generally positive, with it viewed as a beacon of how technology went hand in hand with increasing prosperity. However, a history of highly-publicised leaks, discharges and assorted incidents have created a legacy of societal mistrust. In this article, Professor Adrian Bull examines what measures can be taken by industry and government to re-invigorate the UK’s nuclear sector and its relationship with the public.

Part of the problem is that—after the initial positive phase—the early decades of nuclear sector communication with the public lacked engagement and openness, fuelling concerns that the industry has much to hide and little to be proud of. Perhaps as a consequence, public anti-nuclear protests were often followed by Government capitulation, exacerbated by the long timeframes, spanning multiple elections, which characterised the development and operation of nuclear facilities.

But today—with new nuclear plants in prospect for sites across the country and with the search ongoing to find a site for a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) for radioactive waste in the UK—the nuclear sector and government need to engage early and with much more focus on the potential host communities.

Past incidents of management and safety failures sit alongside other legitimate concerns people hold about radiation, such as the potential global consequences of a major accident and the intergenerational legacy of nuclear waste. Together, all this has made the relationship with society somewhat uncomfortable. Regrettably, until relatively recently it didn’t always respond well, and in many cases, barely responding at all—applying the same approach used for making nuclear safety cases to communications. Long discussions and multiple changes, before any statement would finally appear, long after the conversation had moved on.

This article was adapted from an article on the Policy@ Manchester blog https://blog.policy.manchester.ac.uk/ sci-tech/2023/02/a-nuclear-society-rebuilding-perceptions -of-nuclear-energy

Consequentially, there has been reluctance from some, often vociferous, parts of society to endorse and support the activities of an industry it sees as intruding into its communities, rather than adding value.

Things are certainly improving, but communications from government and industry clearly need to change further in future. That said, there are several

encouraging signs, not always driven by a greater support for the nuclear industry, but more by the changing priorities and values of society itself.

We can all see the impact of climate change, which heightens society’s desire to avert more damage, or at least to avoid making things worse with more fossil fuel use. Enhanced concerns over energy security have made people value the baseload power we get from stations that produce electricity 24/7, irrespective of the weather. And the consequences of COVID include greater familiarity with the role of science in public policy and greater willingness among the public to challenge those links and dig further behind the data.

Government should ensure that policy-making in relation to energy and climate change is evidencebased, open and transparent, and that the science and data behind policy decisions are published along with the decisions themselves. Essentially a “show your working” approach.

In step with the current Energy Awareness campaign, national and devolved UK governments should support local authorities to invite local communities to discuss how they can contribute towards the UK’s Net Zero commitment, including by hosting low carbon infrastructure of all types, and how they might be rewarded for doing so. Local authorities could lead on this to shape and guide place-based responses.

In lockstep with government, the nuclear sector needs to up its game in the future, too. Not just for proposed new power stations, such as the new generation of Small Modular Reactors—which have the potential to be located within communities with no previous experience of nuclear energy—but also for nuclear waste disposal.

For the first time ever, the approval for a key piece of UK infrastructure will sit with society,

rather than with Government. The proposed final resting place for the UK’s higher level nuclear waste—a deep underground disposal site, known as the GDF—will only proceed if the community where it is to be hosted explicitly decide that they want to have it. There is a package of community and financial benefit attached too, but it will be a far-reaching decision for a group of 21st century citizens to make an irrevocable choice to host a huge part of Britain’s nuclear waste inventory below their community for all eternity.

There are currently four communities engaged in the process to select a final GDF location and any decision on a final site is well over a decade away. But if the communities are to remain engaged, the industry needs to think and act differently. Instead of the nuclear sector focusing on a conversation about itself, conversations should start with a focus on the community. What do they consider to be important? What are their values? How do they come to identify themselves as a “community” in the first place? How do they want to be viewed by their descendants, many generations into the future?

Government can support this approach by encouraging conversations with potential GDF host communities around the needs and values of the community itself rather than around nuclear waste and repository design. Experience in Scandinavia—at Östhammar in Sweden and Onkalo in Finland—shows that with the right engagement approach, communities can be accepting of—and even competing to secure—the hosting of waste disposal facilities.

If Government and industry can rise to the challenge and start listening before speaking, then there is a real chance of turning nuclear’s relationship with wider society into a much more positive one, for all concerned.

Jacobs to Plan Dismantling of Soviet-era Nuclear Reactors

A consortium comprising Westinghouse Electric Spain, Jacobs and the Lithuanian Energy Institute was selected to plan dismantling and waste management at the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (INPP) in Lithuania.

Soviet-designed Ignalina could be the first graphite-moderated reactor plant to be dismantled, making it an important test bed for methodologies that could be used to decommission the UK’s Magnox and advanced gas-cooled reactors, which also have graphite cores.

“This project, on top of the recently announced contract with Norsk Nukleær Dekommisjonering, has advanced Jacobs’ strategy to grow our decommissioning and regeneration solutions business in continental Europe. Our teams based in the UK, France and Slovakia are applying decommissioning skills acquired through work on some of the world’s most complex and challenging nuclear sites including Sellafield and Fukushima.”

Karen Wiemelt, Energy, Security & Technology Senior Vice President, Jacobs

In 2002, the Lithuanian government decided to shut down Ignalina NPP, which supplied up to 88% of the country’s electricity. Over the next 19 years, Jacobs formed part of the project management unit for a set of purpose-built facilities needed to decommission the plant, as part of a program led by the Ignalina International Decommissioning Support Fund and financed through the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

GE Hitachi Submits GDA Application in the UK for the BWRX-300 Small Modular Reactor

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) has submitted a Generic Design Assessment (GDA) entry application for the BWRX-300 small modular reactor (SMR) to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

“We believe the BWRX-300 is the ideal technology to help the UK meet its decarbonization and energy security goals. Regulatory agencies in Canada and the US are collaborating on their licensing review of the BWRX-300. Through the GDA process we look forward to engaging UK regulators and enabling collaboration with their global counterparts.”

Sean Sexstone, Executive Vice President, Advanced Nuclear, GEH

The GDA process allows UK regulators to assess standards of safety, security and environmental protection of new nuclear power plant designs. GEH was supported in preparation of the application by Jacobs UK, which has supported licensing applications for new nuclear power plant projects in the UK since 2007, drawing on its deep understanding of the GDA process and site-specific regulatory requirements.

The UK has stated a goal of 24 GW of nuclear generation capacity by 2050 to address energy security and climate change. GEH believes that a fleet of BWRX-300 SMRs could play a substantial role in the UK meeting decarbonization and energy security goals.

There is growing global interest in the BWRX300. Ontario Power Generation and SaskPower selected the BWRX-300 SMR technology for potential deployment in Canada, and Tennessee Valley Authority also selected the technology for potential deployment in the US. In Poland, ORLEN Synthos Green Energy started the prelicensing process by submitting an application with the potential for deployment of the first unit by the end of this decade.

To support global deployment, GEH has memoranda of understanding or other agreements in place with companies in Canada, Czech Republic, Poland, UK, US and Sweden among others.

In addition to helping customers achieve decarbonisation goals, the BWRX-300 is designed to reduce construction and operating costs below other nuclear power generation technologies.

Lack of women in the nuclear sector puts net zero goals in danger

Women such as Marie Skłodowska-Curie, Lisa Meitner, Chien-Shiung Wu and Katharine Way were key pioneers in nuclear science and technology and women around the world continue to make vital contributions. But a new Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) report reveals that their visibility and numbers remain low, making up only 24.9% of the nuclear sector workforce in NEA countries.

The number of women working in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and leadership roles are lower still. This lack of diversity represents a loss of potential innovation and growth and a critical threat to the viability of the field.

A new NEA report, Gender Balance in the Nuclear Sector, is the first publicly available international data on gender balance in the nuclear sector and is based on data collected from over 8,000 women in the nuclear workforce in 32 countries, as well as human resources data from 96 nuclear organisations in 17 countries.

Released on 8 March to mark International Women’s Day, the report reveals that nearly half the women surveyed in the nuclear energy sector have experienced or heard accounts of gender bias and sexual harassment at work. The publication also highlights that women are paid less (based on limited datasets) and feel as though they lack female role models, which makes it harder for the sector to attract more female talent.

The report was conducted under the mandate of the NEA’s Task Group on Improving Gender Balance in the Nuclear Sector which was formed after many NEA countries highlighted that gender balance was an increasingly important matter that would benefit from international co-operation.

The report found that women in the nuclear sector are eager to advance but face challenges such as a lack of flexible work practices for those with family responsibilities, as well as gender stereotyping. The current recruitment, attrition and promotion rates are insufficient to significantly improve gender balance in the sector.

Despite the challenges, the majority of women surveyed said that they would encourage other women to pursue a career in the nuclear sector, which offers hope for the sector as it seeks to attract and retain more female talent to meet its ambitious future targets.

New metals recycling programme for Urenco

Urenco Nuclear Stewardship is progressing its plan to site a Waste Metals Facility at its base in Capenhurst, on Urenco’s nuclear licensed site.

This will build on its capacity and capability to manage metal waste product and residues as it delivers its internal programme to refurbish and renew plant across the company. It will also provide the nuclear stewardship and waste management business with an opportunity to build its facility and offer its extensive waste management expertise to its commercial partners both in the UK and Europe. Some services which form part of the programme are only available overseas.

“We are already providing waste treatment services under the Waste Nuclear ServicesMetallic Waste Treatment Services Framework and the expansion of our metallic treatment capability strengthens our service offering of integrated waste management solutions.”

Jason Gradie, Managing Director for Urenco Nuclear Stewardship

Work has now begun on further design activities, safety case development, preliminary waste acceptance criteria and procurement of long-lead items.

Sellafield contract boosts northern economy

Two north west companies have won a share of a £249m contract to supply steelwork to Sellafield. Severfield Nuclear and Infrastructure and William Hare have been appointed key delivery partners with the Sellafield Programme and Project Partners (PPP.) The 17-year framework will see the Bolton and Bury based firms provide steelwork to major projects on the Cumbrian nuclear site. Sellafield is one of the largest infrastructure projects in the north, supporting 60,000 jobs.

The birthplace of the UK nuclear industry, the site is now focused on decommissioning and waste management. PPP was mobilised to transform Sellafield Ltd’s major project delivery. The latest contracts are part of its Multi Project Procurement model. This encourages long-term collaboration throughout the supply chain, enhancing project delivery and maximising economic and social impact.

The steelwork package is the fifth key delivery partner supplier framework to be awarded by PPP. Severfield Nuclear and Infrastructure has multiple sites in the UK and an annual capacity to produce around 300,000 tonnes of fabricated steelwork.

NEW MEMBERS

ALTEN LTD alten.co.uk

Alten is a global engineering consultancy, offering services in all sectors, including civil nuclear for new build, in-service and decommissioning.

In the UK, we support Edvance and Rolls-Royce SMR and ALTEN is part of UK EPR Design center, committed to develop further nuclear competencies in the UK.

CLOUD NC cloudnc.com

CloudNC develops advanced software enabling companies to create efficient and reliable manufacturing processes in a single click.

Our technology means producers can create components more efficiently, either by using our software to accelerate their own operations, or through manufacture at our factory in Essex.

JMG TECHNICAL SERVICES LTD jmgtechnicalservices.co.uk

JMG Technical Services provide technical authoring and process improvement expertise across the nuclear industry supply chain. Collaborating with end customer and intermediaries, it provides logic driven processes, documentation and engineering support to niche technical challenges.

LRQA lrqa.com

LRQA is a leading global assurance provider, operating in over 120 countries, bringing unrivalled expertise in certification, brand assurance, cybersecurity, inspection and training. Our technical know-how, sector expertise and innovative, forwardthinking approach will help you meet the challenges of today

TRACTEBEL tractebel-engie.com

Tractebel are standing up with engineering solutions for a sustainable future and the carbonneutral transition our world needs.

Tractebel engineers and experts are delivering game-changing solutions for energy, water and urban projects in some of the toughest business areas and environments on Earth.

TRANSITION2ZERO transition2zero.net

Transition2Zero is an energy transition strategy and project development consultancy firm.

It’s objective is to more thoughtfully manage the global energy transition. Not by exchanging energy security for climate solutions, but rather by supporting ever cleaner innovation across the entire energy spectrum.

Not a member? To find out about the NIA and benefits of membership scan the QR code. To discuss membership options available to your company call +44 (0)20 7766 6651 or email membership@niauk.org

CURTISS-WRIGHT

curtisswright.com

For over 50 years, Curtiss-Wright has been serving the commercial nuclear power generation market

It supports the upgrade of existing nuclear power plants globally to meet the need for reliable, inexpensive power, and provides critical, advanced technologies to the next generation of nuclear reactors.

EGIS

egis-group.com

Egis is a leading global consulting, construction engineering and operating firm. We work side by side with clients to build a more balanced, sustainable and resilient world.

We work across the full nuclear lifecycle, from greenfield to operation and decommissioning to clean up,

EQUILIBRION

equilibrion.co.uk

Equilibrion work with business to identify, collaborate, and deliver captivating cross sector propositions across the hydrogen, heat and transport value chains driven by nuclear energy.

We believe nuclear energy can make a major contribution to fighting climate change.

SEABORG seaborg.com

Seaborg are actively developing the design for their Compact Molten Salt Reactor, alongside licensing and experimental validation activities of key safety and performance claims and are currently building new experimental facilities.

We are a family-owned construction and civil engineering company established since 1869. We design, develop, build and preserve some of Britain’s most iconic buildings. We shape towns, cities, and landscapes and put the local community at the heart of everything we do.

STORK stork.com

We are a family-owned construction Stork a Fluor company, is a global provider of integrated operations, maintenance, modification and asset integrity solutions.

Our spectrum of products & services spans the full asset lifecycle, from construction, maintenance and turnarounds up to decommissioning.

TRANT

trant.co.uk

Trant Engineering Ltd deliver critical national infrastructure projects in the UK and overseas.

Our in-house design and manufacturing capabilities allow us to maximise innovation and efficiencies for our client. Our expertise lies in delivery of engineering projects in challenging environments.

TURNBULL

At Turnbull, we have a mature confidence in everything we do, and are respected for our straight-talking approach.

We are credible leaders in our industry and deliver excellence by combining our many skills and diverse experience with a deep understanding of our customers’ needs.

TURNER

From the inception of a project through to completion and beyond, Turner & Townsend help to deliver the outcomes that matter to you, with services covering the full spectrum of consultancy, project delivery and post-project operations.

SIR ROBERT MCALPINE srm.com

AND SCOTT ENGINEERS turnbull-scott.co.uk

AND TOWNSEND turnerandtownsend.com

Passing milestones on the roadmap to energy security

Recently, Osprey’s nuclear team coordinated the transportation of EDF’s new Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) in to Hinkley Point C (HPC). The safe delivery of this component marks yet another important milestone, not only for the site itself, but also for Britain’s nuclear roadmap.

Osprey is a Tier 1 supplier to HPC. We co-ordinate, engineer and execute the most challenging, heaviest lifting for supersized critical assets coming into the site in Somerset. Our Tier 1 capabilities are a core service, and we offer a range of similar, short and long-term end-to-end solutions for lynchpin clients in almost every sector.

It must be said that, weighing 500 tonnes, the RPV wasn’t the heaviest component we’ve ever moved. We’ve transported railway bridges weighing over 5,000 tonnes for Network Rail, for example. But this was the first time in 30 years that a reactor of this enormous significance has arrived in Britain (the last one, also manufactured by the French manufacturer, Framatome, was installed at Sizewell B in Suffolk).

A clear roadmap, a sustainable future

The UK needs a diverse, balanced, and sustainable energy mix. Britain’s five, current existing nuclear plants are ageing. Over the last three decades, it’s become clear that the importance of these new reactors cannot be underestimated as climate change and political landscapes prompt alternate decisions around energy supply.

Currently, there are 15 civil nuclear reactors in Britain. Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors (AGR) at Torness, Dungeness, Hinkley Point B, Heysham 1, Heysham 2 and Hartlepool, and a Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR) at Sizewell B. A few of these have already stopped generating energy, and entered or are about to enter defueling the last phase of operations before decommissioning. In 2022, these reactors met 15.5 per cent of the country’s electricity needs but the units at four locations are due to be retired by 2028 (the government has confirmed that Sizewell C in Suffolk will go ahead, but is unlikely to come online in the next ten years).

Our nation needs more nuclear plants minireactors, too and tighter, more ambitious build plans. Modular construction is still uppermost

in our minds as a future way to replicate best practice, at scale. Almost a year ago, at the end of March 2022, the Nuclear Energy (Financing) Act 2022 received Royal Assent. The Government’s commitment to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 will hopefully be more achievable as a result. Progress at HPC signals momentum, and we believe Osprey can help to deliver the UK energy vision even more effectively building our gleaned insights into these ambitious plans.

These are the watchwords for Britain’s nuclear roadmap: effectiveness, efficiency, and of course safety. They are also the pillars on which we deliver our services to HPC. Every new plant (be it a mini-reactor or a major installation) prioritises QHSE during its construction, and we take the same approach throughout. By working this way now, looping our learnings into future templates for nuclear logistics, we can be sure of having a robust platform on which to explore the more innovative side of our work as nuclear comes on line over the next few years.

Progress – steady, safe, and secure

When commissioned, this RPV will create the heat needed to produce the steam powering the world’s largest turbines both RPVs working together will generate the electricity for almost six million homes. It’s the first of two such reactors at HPC, which will ensure the flow of coolant water around the reactor core and enable plant operators to monitor and control a safe, efficient, and effective operation.

The unit first arrived in Britain at Avonmouth Docks. Our barge team took safe possession and transported it to Combwich Wharf, there are multiple stakeholders and suppliers involved in transporting assets of this nature and value. The final leg of the journey was a 4.6 mile trip from the wharf up to the main construction area, where it will now be stored safely and securely until it’s installed in the Reactor Building itself.

We’re proud to be part of a cohort that’s delivering rapid progress towards Britain’s energy security for future generations. Many specialist milestones have been reached already in the construction of HPC we look forward to passing many more over the coming months.

Decision Time—The global race is gathering speed, will Britain keep up?

Our economic prosperity is tied to the availability of cheap energy. As our new Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero observed, “the most successful economies in the world are the ones that have cheap energy prices.” In that paradigm, Grant Shapps said “my very simple objective is to create the economy with the cheapest wholesale electricity price by 2035. That’s what I’m going to be all about. Let’s have Britain with the cheapest energy in Europe.”

No system can be that cheap with clean, reliable, sovereign power underpinning it, as our current energy crisis well attests. We cannot achieve that objective, then, with a proper plan for new nuclear investment. The British Energy Security Strategy gives us a target, but not a plan.

The Budget is (or will have been) our window of opportunity to set out the beginnings of a plan and show investors that we are serious as our competitors about investment in nuclear. We sent a bolt of energy through the international industry by announcing a 24 GW new build ambition in March of last year, but since then we have not done much to turn the broad political support into action. Our allies, by contrast, have moved and moved decisively.

In the US, the Inflation Reduction Act authorises $369 billion in spending dedicated to clean energy. For nuclear specifically, there more than $30 billion set aside for operating plants, future plants, advanced nuclear technologies and advanced nuclear fuel. The US has put $4.5 billion into three advanced nuclear reactor demonstrator projects. The equivalent in the UK is £385 million in the Advanced Nuclear Fund, 10 times less. The US has put $700 million behind the develop of High Assay Low Enriched Uranium for advanced fuels as well— the UK Nuclear Fuel Fund as a whole amounts to £63 million, 10 times less.

Likewise, European countries now plan to deploy more than 90 GW of nuclear new build, and more than 90 GW of life extension work. This work will be covered by the EU Sustainable Investment Taxonomy, which includes nuclear. In the UK, we have only actually approved 6.5 GW of new build, with 1.2 GW of life extension work upcoming, and we have not published a sustainable investment taxonomy to access green finance. The EU is also planning its own response to the Inflation Reduction Act.

Looking at these factors, what investor would choose Britain first? That is the question a proper plan for nuclear deployment has to answer. That plan therefore must include:

● The “green labelling” of nuclear investment as sustainable to allow us to access the widest possible pool of capital and the cheapest possible rates. This is essential to keep us on a level playing field with the EU, and all of the science indicates that nuclear is green.

● The launch of Great British Nuclear (GBN) with the powers to set a strategic direction for the industry, including roadmaps for deployment every nuclear new build site in the country, and interim as well as final deployment targets.

● Funding for DESNZ and, subsequently GBN, to open negotiations in this Parliament with at least two, and preferably three projects, with a binding commitment to get them to FID in the next Parliament (2025-2030.)

○ The launch of GBN included a pledge to get at least two projects to FID in the next Parliament—it is essential to our credibility that we follow that through.

● A commitment to a programme approach to reactor deployment, and a clear commitment to building multiple units of whatever reactor designs are chosen through a selection process.

○ The “1 at a time” approach is a failure and should be explicitly rejected. All the international evidence shows that fleet deployment is the successful formula.

● Initiating negotiations on how we fund SMRs, so we do not fall further behind our competitors who are already initiating SMR deployment.

● Planning reform, including the swift imposition of a Net Zero duty on regulators, to accelerate a process that is far too slow for the urgency of the challenges we are confronting as a country.

We cannot hope for all of this to be included in the Budget, but we will have to see some elements of it, particularly the meaningful launch of Great British Nuclear. I am writing this piece before the Budget. You will be reading this after it, so you will be able to see how much progress we have made.

The NIA will be making the case as energetically as we can that if we want solutions for energy security, for net zero, and for levelling up this country, it has to be nuclear. If you want to be a part of making this case email lincoln.hill@niauk.org. We are always delighted to get members on board, and there has never been a better time!

In what is an exciting time for advanced nuclear technologies in the UK and globally, this Nuclear Industry Association event will bring together companies from across the advanced nuclear space to share ideas, network and present.

The conference will delve into the world of SMRs, AMRs and nuclear’s role in hydrogen and synthetic fuel production, delving deeper into the financing, regulation and government policies surrounding these pioneering technologies.