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The Nuclear Industry in England’s Northwest
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The Nuclear Industry in England’s Northwest
England’s Northwest - Nuclear Expertise England’s Northwest is home to one of the world’s largest concentration of nuclear facilities with an internationally renowned skills base and technological expertise in engineering, generation, decommissioning and environmental remediation. There are 25,000 people employed in the region’s nuclear sector, with seven nuclear sites and over 300 companies in the supply chain. With recent UK Government energy policy announcements, nuclear power is now set to play a key role in the future energy mix. With all the elements of the nuclear fuel cycle in the region, Northwest companies will be playing a pivotal role in the design, construction and operation of new nuclear power plants. This is also an exciting time for overseas investors wishing to capitalise on nuclear new build opportunities. With experience of working with clients in a wide variety of industries and countries, the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) is ideally placed to facilitate and catalyse new business with the region. The region has a proud history of nuclear science and engineering. Just over 200 years ago John Dalton presented his atomic theory to the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, and in 1907 Ernest Rutherford was appointed professor of physics at Manchester University and carried out pioneering research into the nature of alpha particles. The region was also home to the world’s first commercial nuclear power generation plant at Calder Hall, Cumbria, commissioned in 1956. Building on this industry dynamism, from the 1960s onwards the UK developed comprehensive infrastructure to support the nuclear sector as the UK embarked upon major nuclear programmes. With world class facilities and capabilities, the Northwest’s nuclear sector is playing a key role in the £70 billion decommissioning programme of the UK’s civil nuclear sites. Many of the organisations that have developed expertise in the UK’s decommissioning programme will also be applying their knowledge to decommissioning and new build programmes on an international level.
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UK Energy Policy New Build Current UK energy policy is driven by the needs of meeting international obligations to cut greenhouse gas emissions and to ensure security for future energy supply. After extensive consultation, Government has concluded that nuclear power has a key role in meeting these obligations, and in January 2008 announced the steps that would be taken to facilitate a nuclear new build programme in the UK. These steps include the introduction of a new Planning Bill which will reduce the excessive delays in the current planning process for large energy infrastructure projects. Many Northwest companies are expected to play a key role in the design, construction and operation of new nuclear power stations. The Northwest is also home to the key regulators for the design and operation of nuclear plants, with the Health and Safety Executive’s Nuclear Directorate in Liverpool and the Environment Agency’s Nuclear Regulation Group based in Penrith, Cumbria.
Decommissioning Established by the Government in April 2005 with an annual budget of £2 billion, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is responsible for the decommissioning of the UK’s publicly owned civil nuclear liabilities. Headquartered in the Northwest, the role of the NDA is ‘to deliver a world class programme of safe, cost-effective, accelerated and environmentally responsible decommissioning of the UK’s civil nuclear legacy in an open and transparent manner and with due regard to the socio-economic impacts on our communities’. The NDA is opening up the nuclear market to competition for the management of key sites. This will present unique opportunities throughout the nuclear decommissioning supply chain, with many of the major industry specialists, such as AMEC, NUKEM, Atkins and Jordan Nuclear having bases in the Northwest, as well as international contractors such as Fluor, CH2M Hill, Doosan Babcock, EnergySolutions and Washington Division of URS Corporation. Sellafield, the UK’s largest nuclear site, accounts for over 60% of NDA’s annual £2 billion budget on decommissioning, offering economic and investment potential for the global supply chain.
Waste Management The legacy issues of nuclear waste are now being addressed in the UK and the preferred solution is a deep underground repository. With an estimated cost of £10 billion this will be a major engineering project drawing upon a wide variety of skills and technical disciplines. Many of the organisations in the region’s nuclear sector will be contributing to this programme.
Case study Costain Oil, Gas & Process has assembled the UK’s largest nuclear engineering task force for many years, in its Manchester headquarters, to deliver additional evaporative capacity (Evaporator D) for Sellafield Limited. Costain is bringing innovation to project delivery by applying modularisation techniques gained from many years experience in the oil and gas sector to add value in terms of safety, quality and programme acceleration to the UK’s most important strategic nuclear decommissioning project.
Case study Northwest company Aker Kvaerner has been awarded a £16 million contract by Magnox Electric Limited, to design, build and install a plant for the retrieval and encapsulation of wet intermediate level wastes (ILW) at Hunterston A Site in West Kilbride, Scotland. The project is part of the site’s nuclear decommissioning programme, with plant start up expected in July 2010. The scope of the contract includes engineering design from Aker Kvaerner’s Warrington and Stockton offices, as well as the manufacture, construction, site commissioning, and safety case work for a facility that will carry out the safe retrieval and encapsulation of the wet ILW wastes.
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The Nuclear Industry in England’s Northwest
Major Nuclear Facilities in England’s Northwest
Supply Chain With approximately half of the UK’s 50,000 nuclear sector employees in the region, the Northwest has become the UK centre for civil nuclear science and technology. All aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle are carried out here from uranium enrichment and fuel manufacture, to power generation, decommissioning and waste management. There are approximately 300 Northwest companies who play an active part in the nuclear supply chain, and six licensed sites under the control of the NDA which generate a combined expenditure of around £1.5 billion (gross) per annum.
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Key to Nuclear Facilities 1
The National Skills Academy for Nuclear’s headquarters are based in West Cumbria.
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www.baesystems.com
www.nuclear.nsacademy.co.uk 2
Energus, the flagship delivery arm of the National Skills Academy for Nuclear is currently under construction at Lillyhall.
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Sellafield is the largest and most complex nuclear site in the UK with around 12,000 employees on site. Although much of the site is being decommissioned there are major fuel and waste reprocessing activities on site. The Sellafield complex also includes the Windscale and Calder Hall reactors which are currently being decommissioned. www.sellafieldsites.com
The British Energy site at Heysham is the UK’s largest nuclear generation site with a total capacity of 2.4GW. www.british-energy.com
www.energus.co.uk
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The BAE Submarine Solutions yard at Barrow builds nuclear submarines.
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Springfield Fuels employs 1400 people and manufactures nuclear fuel, intermediate products and uranium hexafluoride. www.nuclearsites.co.uk
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The Urenco uranium enrichment operation at Capenhurst employs 500 people. www.urenco.com
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The British Technology Centre at Sellafield is a new purpose built active laboratory complex employing around 500 people. The UK Government has recently announced that the BTC will have the status of National Nuclear Laboratory and be the centre of excellence for UK nuclear research. www.nexiasolutions.com There are approximately 150 people at the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority headquarters based at Westlakes Science Park near Whitehaven. www.nda.gov.uk
10 The Nuclear Directorate of the Health and Safety Executive Inspectorate in Liverpool is responsible for licensing all of the UK’s nuclear facilities.
www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear
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The Dalton Nuclear Institute, Manchester, undertakes highest quality research across the nuclear fields. www.dalton.manchester.ac.uk
England’s Northwest With a £111 billion economy, 230,000 successful businesses and 7 million people, England’s Northwest operates on a truly international scale. The Northwest Regional Development Agency is the organisation tasked with delivering economic development and regeneration to the region, and is the first port of call for investors looking to do business in England’s Northwest. The region consists of the major cities of Manchester, the largest financial and professional services location outside of London, and Liverpool home to Europe’s largest biologics community. It is also home to the counties of Lancashire, a world leader in advanced manufacturing and engineering; Cheshire, home to some of the world’s most successful multinational companies; and Cumbria, at the cutting-edge of nuclear technology. One of Europe's largest concentrations of universities can also be found in the Northwest with over 50,000 graduates per year. All of our universities are commercially astute and encourage close co-operation with business. Twenty research groups across the region achieved the top rating (five-star) during the last assessment in 2001. Our region also provides excellent national and international connectivity. By road we have the highest concentration of motorways in the country, with the UK’s main north-south and east-west routes both running through the region. In addition, our three international airports fly to over 270 destinations worldwide with Manchester International Airport the UK’s largest airport outside of London.
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The Nuclear Industry in England’s Northwest
Skills The National Skills Academy for Nuclear The Government is committed to raising the skills base of the UK’s nuclear workforce to meet forthcoming challenges in decommissioning and new build. The National Skills Academy for Nuclear, funded by the Northwest Regional Development Agency, is the leading body for an employer-led strategy to develop a standardised and coordinated approach to education, training and skills in the nuclear sector. From its Head Office in West Cumbria, the Skills Academy will operate via a regional network of training clusters which will identify, develop and accredit local high quality provision, creating “centres of excellence” for the delivery of nuclear specialised training, enhanced where appropriate to respond to specific skill gaps as identified by nuclear employers. The National Skills Academy for Nuclear will embrace the entire nuclear sector (excluding health), from power generation, decommissioning, cleanup and waste management, to fuel processing, defence and new build. In response to the forecast that the nuclear industry will require a substantial increase in potential new learners in decommissioning, new build and other sub sectors over the next 20 years, the National Skills Academy will focus on vocational and technical skills development and training, with clearly defined links to Higher Education and Higher Level skills development. The flagship delivery centre of the National Skills Academy for Nuclear is the new £19 million Energus facility, currently under construction in West Cumbria. A major public-private partnership, Energus is set to become a world class centre of excellence for nuclear skills development.
Case study A specialist in the area of nuclear site remediation REACT Engineering is an SME providing cost-effective solutions through a meticulous process of research, analysis, synthesis and development. A forward looking company, REACT Engineering is investing in the future through their graduate training programme and links with schools and universities to actively promote careers in engineering.
Case study AMEC is the one of the largest private sector nuclear engineering companies in the UK employing around 650 people in its nuclear division which includes a major commercial radiochemistry laboratory in Warrington. In addition to performing analysis and testing, the laboratory carries out development projects supporting the operation of the UK’s Advanced Gascooled Reactor (AGR) fleet specialising in coolant chemistry and corrosion.
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Science and Engineering Base The UK’s largest concentration of nuclear scientists and engineers can be found at the British Technology Centre in Cumbria. This £250 million purpose built facility is operated by Nexia Solutions Ltd (the R&D subsidiary of BNFL) and employs some 500 staff. The Government has recently announced that this facility will be the focal point of a UK ‘National Nuclear Laboratory’. This major laboratory complex features active cells capable of handling high and medium activity wastes and extensive chemical analysis and testing facilities.
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Case study A new multi-million pound Metal Recycling Facility (MRF) to be built at Lillyhall, Workington in West Cumbria, will help the NDA and its contractors to implement the national waste hierarchy by ending the practice of sending valuable metals for burial at the Low Level Waste Repository (LLWR) near Drigg. The plant, to be built by Studsvik UK Ltd, was given planning permission by Cumbria County Council at the end of July 2007. Studsvik estimates that there are 500,000 tonnes of slightly contaminated scrap metal in the UK which can be safely treated, recycled and reused. The Workington facility will handle metal arising from both operations and decommissioning activities on UK nuclear sites.
Academic research expertise The Northwest has a long history of academic research in nuclear science and engineering. Manchester University has set out ambitious plans to become a world leading academic institution and its nuclear research and education activities are a key part of this. To help achieve its vision, the University has established the Dalton Nuclear Institute which has recently signed a joint agreement with NDA for a £20m investment in new capabilities such as Radiation Sciences and Decommissioning Engineering as well as a state of the art research and teaching facility in West Cumbria. In addition, the Northwest Science Council has also endorsed plans at the Dalton Nuclear Institute to establish the Centre for Nuclear Energy Technology which will support capabilities necessary for new nuclear build. These additional investments go alongside the University’s existing nuclear strengths in Materials Performance, Radiochemistry, Engineering and Sustainability. In addition to Manchester University a number of other institutes in the region have key strengths in the nuclear sector: •
Lancaster University is home to the Lloyd's Register Educational Trust Chair in Nuclear Engineering and Decommissioning and runs highly-successful, industry-based Masters programmes in Nuclear Safety and Decommissioning
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The University of Liverpool has a radiometrics research group specialising in instrumentation and modelling
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The Nuclear Technology Education Consortium, based in Manchester, is a consortium of UK universities and other institutions providing postgraduate education in Nuclear Science & Technology
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There are extensive facilities at the Institute of Materials at the University of Salford for the study of atomic collisions
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The University of Central Lancashire is home to the new John Tyndall Nuclear Research Institute with expertise in fuel cycle and analytical science, ventilation engineering and contaminated land remediation
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The University of Bolton’s Centre for Materials Research and Innovation has key strengths in the modelling, design and development of advanced materials of relevance to the Nuclear Industry as well as in methods for the detection of radiolytic products in foods and human body fluids
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The University of Cumbria & Carlisle College offer a Foundation Degree in Nuclear-Related Technology
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The University of Cumbria & Lakes College, West Cumbria, offer Foundation Degrees in Nuclear Decommissioning, Nuclear Related Technology and Nuclear Skills
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BAE Systems offers graduate placement within their Instrumentation Centre
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GEN II at Carlisle Skills Centre is a joint venture training company established in 2000 by five of West Cumbria's major employers - Sellafield Ltd, Corus, AMEC, Iggesund Paperboard and Innovia Films. UKAEA joined in 2005; the Centre offers a range of engineering & apprentice training and is developing a Foundation Degree in Nuclear Related Technology
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The National Laboratory (British Technology with Nexia Solutions) provide training in nuclear science, and engineering, and offer a PhD in Clean-up
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Sellafield Limited runs a graduate development programme and Nuclear MBA course
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West Lakes Research Institute in Cumbria has expertise in epidemiology and radiological assessment modelling
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For further information on opportunities in the Nuclear sector in England’s Northwest contact: Joe Flanagan Sector Leader - Energy and Environmental Technologies Northwest Regional Development Agency Tel: +44 (0)1925 400 332 Email: joe.flanagan@nwda.co.uk
The Northwest Regional Development Agency PO Box 37 Renaissance House Centre Park Warrington WA1 1XB Tel: +44 (0)1925 400 100 Fax: +44 (0)1925 400 400
www.nwda.co.uk www.enw.co.uk/invest
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