Times_BI_North_130326

Business Insight Tuesday March 26 2013

The Energy Coast’s sea of promise Page five

Budget wins business Forum: Page two

Passion goes to waste Forum: Page ten

Selling Sellafield Brian Wilson interview Page six

Tuesday March 26 2013 | the times

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Business Insight

Welcome

Controversy Coast

Forum on Red Box Day

A Budget that’s not all gloom,

by George

Whatever your views on nuclear power – and you need only read our Forum report on page 10 to see that opinions are always passionate on both sides – it cannot be denied that West Cumbria has benefited economically from its controversial presence since the 1940s.

And the controversy goes on. Now it is all about the old Sellafield plant being decommissioned ahead of the planned investment in new power stations.

Our interview on page 6 with ex-minister Brian Wilson – now chairing the economic development agency Britain’s Energy Coast with a philosophy of accentuating the positive – highlights the value for tomorrow’s world of the plant’s 10,000 workers’ vast experience and the innovative talents of its supply chain companies.

By Mike Cowley This issue focuses on several of these ell George, you certainly seem to have made a fair companies and talents and offers an overview of fist of the Budget – at least from the Liverpool the area’s burgeoning business prospects – less perspective. There were than a week on from more controversy sparked no rabbits pulled out of the hat – you have a rabbit to do that – but a Budget by the Budget (see opposite) – in what Mr Wilson toDayhave panel brought together by The Times at the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce calls “one of the most beautiful parts of the UK”. voted by a margin of nine to four that this year’s measures were positive.

Welcome to Britain’s Energy Coast.

W

Inside

The selling of the new Sellafield Brian Wilson interview Pages 6 and 7 Waste opportunity raises emotions The Times Forum Pages 10 and 11 Muscular trio lifts legacy Decommissioning challenge Page 19 The Times Business Insight reaches more senior business people in the North of England than any other quality newspaper.

Indeed, with 184,000 readers* and reaching almost 20 per cent of the all c-suite executives**, there is no better place to be seen. *Source NRS July 2011 - June 2012 **Source BBS 2011

To advertise in the next North of England edition of Business Insight — Freephone 0800 027 0403 or contact: stuart@timesnorth.co.uk

Those four only classed it as indifferent, and no one gave it the equivalent of our usual nul points performance in the Eurovision Song Contest. Yet the favourable vote was tempered by reservations about what the Chancellor didn’t say, rather than what he did. The concern was that once the obviously sugar-coated pill had been sucked, there was likely to be something unpleasant underneath.

The consensus also felt there had been some sleight of hand in the way he shuffled the pack of measures, in that what at first appeared to be jam today was in fact

Too late?

By Jenny Stewart, chief operating officer, Liverpool Chamber of Commerce

M

easures on fuel duty, home ownership, employment and reduced corporation tax will be a shot in the arm for business – but the Government should have gone even further to support enterprise and growth through immediate action on business rates and road maintenance.

Many of the Chancellor’s measures are positive, but they may come too late, particularly for smaller and medium-sized companies. We need urgency, scale and delivery today, and a

jam spread much further down the road.

As always, the devil lies in the detail of the measures – and all agreed there was a considerable shortage of that.

Naturally, the panel provided only an instant snapshot of reaction on Budget Day itself, and some panellists – at least with the benefit of hindsight – may well have changed some of their views by now.

Despite all this, the vote was interesting from a city, the majority of whose population would rather be abducted by aliens than have anything to do with the Tory Toffs. And this against the background of claims by the council leader that “the Government has levied the biggest cuts on Liverpool – which has the greatest needs and poverty of anywhere in the country”.

The reality, however, was that the panellists were members of the pragmatic, hard-headed business community, eager to grasp any inkling of good news that will promote confidence, while fully understanding that there is no easy answer, no instant fix for the economy to get us back to those totally unreal (if enjoyable) pre-

more radical approach to infrastructure alongside the commitment to fiscal discipline.

Companies across the country are crying out for relief from relentless annual rises in business rates, but the Treasury has put off action until the Autumn Statement. Companies are also crying out for access to proper funding, and too little attention has been paid in this Budget to business lending.

If measures to boost the housing market are effective, it will benefit a wide range of sectors – not just construction – but the Chancellor could arguably have given more direct support for the construction of new homes, which would have had a much swifter impact on the construction supply chain.

The Chancellor’s move to help our smallest companies take on staff by cutting their employers’ National Insurance bills by £2,000 will give many businesses an important boost of confidence. Small companies should be able

2008 days. And everyone on the panel was well aware that Budget Day is when the Chancellor makes his announcements with one eye on the next election.

Liverpool was chosen for The Times Forum as it has long been a barometer of what has been happening in commercial terms in the North of England.

And despite being buffeted by the economic winds, the city has been making some headway, with the announcement of backing for the £3.5 billion Liverpool Waters project, where Peel Developments is once again in the vanguard of the private sector initiative.

The venue was also apposite, in that the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce was founded back in 1774 – making it one of the first organisations of its type in the world – to act as the voice of local business in lobbying and influencing Government policy.

Under the chairmanship of Alasdair Nimmo, publisher of The Times Business Insight North, the panel dissected the Budget announcements. Mr Nimmo pressed and prodded the panellists

to focus on growth rather than worrying about getting hit by employment taxes.

As part of a wider re-prioritisation of resources on measures to boost confidence, jobs and growth, the Chancellor should have used this Budget to divert unproductive current spending into road maintenance and repairs today.

This would have had immediate effects on business confidence, construction sector jobs and the effectiveness of our transport network.

We welcome, however, the Chancellor’s commitments on energy, as they contribute to our overall energy security and resilience. We hope that these announcements, together with the confidence generated by planning permission for new nuclear, will reduce the political risk that has dogged private investment in energy infrastructure.

Overall, our view of the Chancellor’s performance is probably not too dissimilar to that received by school children everywhere: could do better.

the times | Tuesday March 26 2013

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Business Insight

Quotes of the day

Panellists with chairman Alasdair Nimmo fourth from right at table: Most wanted monetary reward for Northern cities’ historic efforts

We have to present a coherent case for why this region and not others should get that money

point-by-point, maintaining that Liverpool is “a bellwether for the North of England against a backdrop of economic gloom”.

What most panellists were wanting George Osborne to do was to hand over a promised pot of money to the cities that had generated the real wealth of the country in the first place – Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle – based on the Lord Heseltine plan.

If embraced in full, this would see around £80bn over four years handed to the regions to be used more or less as they saw fit to boost their local economies, so dispensing with the one-size-fits-all approach to regeneration that has for too long been to the benefit of the South East.

The Chancellor went some way to getting the panel onside by effectively endorsing the plan – an announcement warmly welcomed by Jenny Stewart, chief operations officer of the host Chamber – but not giving away at this stage how much will be involved.

It was also made clear by Mike Palin, an economist and executive director of strategic planning for the Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership, that this is not as yet a done deal. “This has been well trailed,” he said. “We expect Government to announce over next few weeks that they will combine funding for housing, skills and transport into a single pot that regions will need to bid into ahead of 2015.

“What that means for this city region is that it will have to present a coherent case for why this region and not others should receive that money. And that’s not an easy thing to do, given that some cities are already promoting themselves to be recipients. The next 12 months will be very important in producing this plan.

“We have to establish why this money should come to Liverpool and not Birmingham – who are currently taking the lead – and Manchester, which has traditionally played the game very well – and I say that as a Mancunian. We are encouraged by the fact that it will give us some flexibility to invest in things that Government does not see it worth investing in – infrastructure and property, particularly.

And there is a viability gap we need to bridge. Their case study is still London Docklands. We need more flexibility – a single-pot approach would give us that flexibility.”

On the question of restoring business confidence “What we really required in this Budget were some steps that would bring confidence back to businesses. Our frustration has been over announcements made over the last few years whose impact on the economy has been hard to see – the funding for lending being one example.” – Brian McCann, corporate finance partner, MC Vanguard Corporate Finance

On the overall likely impact of the Budget measures “He could have done more. Working in construction, it was good to see the housing measures, and the freeze on fuel duty will help business all round. There were a few things there but nothing stunning.”

– John Sutcliffe, managing director of Sutcliffe Engineering and chair of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce

On the single-pot Lord Heseltine approach “I was encouraged by the Chancellor accepting Lord Heseltine’s approach, but still would very much like to understand what it really means to us in Liverpool.” – Jenny Stewart, Liverpool Chamber of Commerce chief operations officer

On inward investment “The corporation tax nugget will certainly help inward investment.

As long as business is moving across borders, it will create Yet though this was seen by all as a step in the right direction, there was real frustration on the panel over the time the Government takes to move forward – and the fact that, to date, little has been done about the ever-present elephant in the room: the North-South economic divide.

“They talked about infrastructure investment and more money – then said we’ll tell you more about that in June.

That’s kind of indicative – it never seems to be now,” said Brian McCann, corporate finance partner at MC Vanguard Corporate Finance.

“Even with the Heseltine recommendations, I wonder if enough is being done to stop everything being centred on the South East. It feels to me like the gap is growing again – and I’ve not heard anything today to encourage businesses to move out of the South East to the regions, or to encourage inward investment other than in the South East.

His sentiments were echoed David Kirby, partner in chartered accountants Wilson Henry. “We seem to take forever in what we do in this country,” he said.

“Fundamentally, we need to find ways to make decisions quickly, then stick to them, so we can move forward.”

The next key item from the Budget which won overall acceptance was the announcement of the reduction in National Insurance contributions, based on £2,000 for each new employee. “We were only saying last night that this would be one of our dreams,” said Jenny Stewart of the Liverpool Chamber. “So we are very pleased by this. A reduction in NI will make a big difference in this city, in that it will help young people to get back into work.”

The news of this reduction also caused some amusement when the panel was

wealth, jobs. I see this as an excellent move.” – Paul Gilbert of The Export Network and chair of the international trade committee at Liverpool Chamber of Commerce

On assistance for childcare “It is a very positive move for Liverpool. We’ve got a lot of single parents who are not able to work.

This, with the income tax relief, will make a much more attractive package to look for work.” – Kush Thakar, policy officer, Liverpool Chamber of Commerce

On raising the tax allowance to £10,000 “I think we shouldn’t forget they are bringing in automatic enrolment for pensions, which will increase costs for both the employer and employee. So he is giving to the lower-paid while taking it away at the same time.”

– Mike Stott, tax director, Duncan Sheard Glass

On the urgent need for a simplified planning regime and upfront infrastructure “With Liverpool Waters it has taken six years to get through the planning system, and even now there is no certainty you can draw down funding. In the case of Liverpool 2, having spent £350 million to deal with the biggest ships, now every square foot of logistics space is fully let. We need to be in the position to build sheds.” – Paul Grover, regional director, WYG

Pondering on the panel informed that it was being erroneously reported by several websites – including The Guardian – that it would be for all employees.

Cutting corporation tax by 1 per cent to 20 per cent also came high on the tick-list for the panel, due to the way this will help with inward investment. As did tax-avoidance measures, but again the absence of detail caused concern. “I would like to hear more about a lot of these measures to see how it affects many of our clients,” said Mike Stott, tax director at Duncan Sheard Glass.

There was also ongoing concern about the fact that the Chancellor may simply be offering incentives which are too far away to have any impact now. “With a lot of these measures, it is really jam tomorrow,” said John Sutcliffe, managing director of Sutcliffe Engineering and chairman of the Chamber.

The new house-buying incentives – particularly for their potential impact on Liverpool – were also welcomed, but again with reservations. “In Liverpool, we have a large stock of terraced houses that they can’t access through current funding, and this should change with the

On concerns over the move to stimulate the housing market “Part of me welcomes the moves, but there are concerns. We are propping up the price of property throughout the UK – which fuelled the boom in the first place.

Until we leverage that, I can’t see how younger people can buy property when it is simply overvalued” – David Kirby of Wilson Henry chartered accountants

On what should have been in the Budget “I was expecting to see more on the Business Bank. Freezing business rates would have been positive, as would have been some assistance in exporting.

The whole point about exporting is that we have a lot of small to medium-sized businesses with the potential. But we need help in getting them to export outside our region first – to Birmingham, to Manchester – before they can consider the BRIC countries.” – Jenny Stewart

On the need for more radical thinking “We should be looking at establishing ourselves as the leaders in green energy – wind, tides – then selling it abroad. We could establish service centres for the world in the North West, just as India once did. Those are the sort of ideas I would like to see from the Government” – Mike Stott

guaranteed mortgage scheme,” said Paul Grover, regional director for WYG, a major construction firm involved in the Liverpool Waters project.

“I’m hopeful now that the new scheme will allow house-builders to draw down funding and get schemes moving forward. If construction had been taken out of the double-dip recession, we would have had a more level playing-field.”

However, Matthew Ashton, a director of start-up architectural practice MgMaStudio, was quick to add a rider.

“My concern is we are woefully undertargeted in delivering buildings,” he said.

“I’d like to see more emphasis on building rather than buying. It’s a different matter outside the M25, where you can’t sell off plan.”

While many reservations were expressed, overall the Budget was welcomed by the panel. The sentiments were arguably best summed up by Alan Tune, a chartered insurance broker with Butterworth Spengler. “I was expecting a boring Budget,” he said, “but was surprised and impressed. But the economy won’t get going until housing gets going, construction gets going. However, I wasn’t expecting any giveaways at all, so I was quite impressed overall.”

With the predominance of critical comment during the panel discussions, the nine-to-four result in favour of describing the Budget as positive was somewhat surprising. It may have had something to do with the penny off the price of a pint, populist measure as it undoubtedly was. Or maybe it was because the other news to dominate Budget Day was what was happening to Cyprus – and that had put both the UK and North of England’s problems into some sort of perspective.

Tuesday March 26 2013 | the times

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Business Insight

Commercial advances

£2.6m fillip for seeing the light in TB fight Wellcome Trust’s backing for Global BioDiagnostics will boost ‘signal’ device Tech Daresbury in Cheshire and in

By Frank Simpson Texas, USA, has received the funding

A

Cheshire company has received an award of £2.6 million from the Wellcome Trust to progress its development of a revolutionary test for diagnosis of one of the world’s biggest killers – tuberculosis, or TB. Global BioDiagnostics, based at Sci-

after completing a proof of concept study of the new technique for diagnosis of the disease.

In as little as 10 minutes, the test – based on technology developed at Texas A&M and Stanford universities – can detect the bacterium that causes TB. The ultimate goal is to develop an

accessible, affordable test that can be used at the point-of-care level in communities across the developing world.

Current tests for TB can be unreliable and expensive.

A benchmark evaluation study undertaken in the US and Peru using fresh sputum from suspected TB patients has proven the feasibility of the technique for rapid diagnosis of TB. “This new funding will support refinements of the technology and further product development work,” said Michael T Norman, chief executive of Global BioDiagnostics, “culminating in field trials of the diagnostic test. We hope to develop a test that will enable accurate diagnosis at an earlier stage of infection, while requiring little by way of clinical or technical skill, in a matter of minutes and at a fraction of current costs.”

The basic research has taken more than five years and has been funded through an ongoing grant of more than £3m to Texas A&M University from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The technology uses chemical substrates that generate a fluorescent signal when they come into contact with an enzyme produced by the bacterium that causes TB. The fluorescent signal is easily detected by simple, low-cost, portable fluorometers that are commercially available.

The new technique is already generating interest from public health authorities and NGOs (non-governmental organisations) in South Africa, India and the Gulf states. “We expect to develop our base in the UK at Sci-

This new funding will support refinements of the technology

Tech Daresbury,” said Mr Norman, “so that we can manage all aspects of the business from there, including global logistics and international relationship management.”

TB is responsible for the deaths of some 1.4m people every year – or 3,800 people every day, half of them children – and is the world’s eighth-biggest killer, according to the World Health Organization. In 2009, there were almost 10 million orphan children as a result of the disease.

Sci-Tech Daresbury is a national science and innovation campus between Liverpool and Manchester, regarded as one of Europe’s leading centres for innovation and business. It assumed official status in April 2012 as one of the Government’s flagship Enterprise Zones. The site is a private-public sector joint venture between property company Langtree, the Science and Technology Facilities Council and Halton Borough Council. The universities of Lancaster, Liverpool and Manchester are also active partners.

“Sci-Tech Daresbury’s position at the heart of the UK’s science and business community offers immeasurable assistance to businesses wishing to forge links with key partners such as the Wellcome Trust,” said John Downes, group chief executive of Langtree and director of the Sci-Tech Daresbury Joint Venture Company. “We are delighted to be able to play a role in developing something which might have such an important impact on the lives of millions of people.”

Wembley hosts Burnley’s football business college

By Robert Ross

T

he home of English football, Wembley Stadium, is to be the new location and second campus for Burnley’s UCFB College of Football Business – the world’s only higher education institution devoted to the study of the business side of football and surrounding industries.

UCFB, based at Burnley FC’s Turf Moor stadium, will open the second campus in time for the first intake of students in September 2014, and with an increase in the available number of degree programmes. UCFB Wembley, as it will be known, will have a 1,500-strong student body within five years of opening, and will offer a range of degrees relating to football and sports administration and business. These degrees will be validated

by UCFB’s academic partner, Buckinghamshire New University.

The institution will take over some 60,000 square feet of existing space on the first four floors of the stadium’s south-west quadrant, consisting of four lecture theatres, 16 seminar rooms, social learning space and a large refectory area. The space will revert to its original purpose on match days and special event days.

Students’ lecture theatres and tutorial rooms will overlook the pitch, and UCFB will have its own dedicated entrance. Several million pounds will be invested ahead of the opening.

UCFB Wembley will be a partnership venture between UCFB and Wembley National Stadium Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Football Association (FA). The agreement is for an initial 12-year period.

From 250 to 300 students will be admitted in 2014, with the opportunity to study three-year BA and BSc degrees in a range of subjects

such as finance, international football business, law, sports psychology and stadium events management.

The UCFB Burnley campus, which took in its second tranche of undergraduates last September, will continue to operate at a stable number of 350 students, as well as expanding its degree offering. It currently offers three degrees – in football business and finance, football business and marketing and football business and media.

UCFB works in a validated partnership with Buckinghamshire New University in response to the status of football and sport as a global multi-billion pound industry that requires unique administrative, management and operational skills. Courses have been created for aspiring professionals who wish to work within the football and sports business and its surrounding industries, gaining skills which are transferable into other business sectors.

Advisory board members include Alastair Campbell, former FA boss Brian Barwick and Professional Footballers’ Association chief executive Gordon Taylor. PFA chairman Clarke Carlisle and TV pundit Sue Smith are also ambassadors for UCFB. Representatives of the PFA, the Premier League and the Football League are active supporters of the higher education institution, as is Neil Doncaster, chief executive of the Scottish Premier League.

Recruitment for the first intake of students at UCFB Wembley commences this month and will be managed through the UCAS system.

“Our institution has attracted professional and student interest from across the world,” said Philip Wilson, provost and chief executive of UCFB, “and it was always apparent that our relatively small beginnings at Turf Moor would quickly develop.

Key players: Roger Maslin, managing director, Wembley Stadium; Brian Barwick, chairman, UCFB advisory board; Prof Ruth Farwell, vicechancellor of Buckinghamshire New University; Philip Wilson, provost and chief executive, UCFB; Melvin Benn, chairman, Wembley Stadium “Wembley Stadium is the natural – and in some respects the only – choice for expansion. It is a global brand in its own right and the spiritual home, in many ways, of the global game. We are delighted to have reached agreement with our partners and look forward to building an institution which has been long overdue in the eyes of many. Football is a global industry which impacts on the lives of millions. UCFB is about ensuring we are equipping the future leaders of the game with the right skills to manage it in the best interests of everyone.”

Professor Ruth Farwell, vice-chancellor of Buckinghamshire New University, said: “We are delighted to be part of the expansion of UCFB into the home of English football, Wembley Stadium. UCFB has made great strides since launching at Burnley FC, and this is another important step in expanding the educational facilities it offers. It makes perfect sense for the second campus to be at such a prestigious and well-loved venue as Wembley and we look forward to many successful years ahead.”

the times | Tuesday March 26 2013

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Business Insight

Introducing...

Focus Britainon Energ ’s y Coast

Britain’s energy coast with the most promise A legacy of nuclear know-how underpins new enterprising age of hi-tech innovation

By Christopher Nelson

P

otential – an interesting word that is used a lot when talking about Britain’s Energy Coast. It is a word demonstrating optimism while at the same time embodying uncertainty.

West Cumbria is brimming with potential. Depending on who you talk to, the area has the potential to be an economic powerhouse benefiting the whole county, not to mention the whole country. It has the potential to be a beacon of renewable energy with windfarms, biomass and tidal electricity generation. And it has the potential to be an exporting hub for world-class talents and ground-breaking innovation. Or it has the potential to be a dumping-ground for nuclear waste which will blight the tourist-friendly Lake District.

Look up potential in a dictionary and the definition includes “possibility”, “latent”, “something that might or might not happen” – and “the difference in electric potential between two points in an electric field”. All of which is valid when you examine what is going on along Britain’s Energy Coast.

Its nuclear legacy is well known, thanks to green campaigners – but is largely misunderstood, with Sellafield too often painted as the root of all environmental evil and too little credit given for the national burden it has carried for so long.

Brian Wilson, chairman of Britain’s Energy Coast, puts that legacy in perspective when he points out that West Cumbria was and still is the single most important location for the UK energy industry.

It was the eye of the nuclear storm as Britain sought to create nuclear capability for weapons and power generation.

And it is now the most complex nuclear site on the planet, with world-class decommissioning issues fuelling world-class decommissioning solutions and producing skills that could be the basis of huge export potential as the rest of the world looks at the lessons, the expertise and the technologies emerging from West Cumbria.

Britain’s Energy Coast is a breeding ground for innovation in facilities such as the National Nuclear Laboratory, which partners the industries around it and also the University of Manchester as it pushes the scientific and technological boundaries. The technology-hot environment also drives innovation and excellence in support industries for the nuclear decommissioning operation – such as James Fisher Nuclear, which last year employed

its nuclear smarts to help protect the London Olympics.

Just a few months later, Britain’s Energy Coast led a delegation of West Cumbrian companies to South Korea – to learn more about their nuclear plans – and to Japan, where Cumbrian born and bred REACT Engineering is on the point of exporting its unique technology to assist the clean-up at Fukushima.

There is also technology in the shape of advanced steel manufacturer Tata, world-beating racing car technology developer M–Sport, the appropriatelynamed Innovia Films – which earns valuable export revenue by innovating in the manufacture of other nations’ currencies – and New Balance, which puts a modern spin on the area’s traditional shoe-making skills by manufacturing some of the world’s best running shoes while ticking all the excellence boxes including ethical labour.

West Cumbria is an area not without its problems: as the nuclear industry pumps money into the economy through wages, supply chain contracts and the development agency Britain’s Energy Coast, so the Government pulls it out in the shape of austerity cuts to regional funding of county and local authorities and delays to important areas of its energy policy.

There are thousands of highly skilled jobs, but not enough highly skilled local people to fill them – and while the local education facilities, from primary and secondary schools right up to the colleges and the University of Cumbria, are working hard and rising fast, they still have some way to go in terms of matching the best in the country.

With comparatively low-cost housing within touching distance of the National Park, and an excellent quality of life sandwiched between the Lake District and a beautiful coastline, West Cumbria remains strangely isolated, with a lack of investment in road and rail links. All that makes it harder for local companies to recruit the people they need to grow, so they are putting more energy into growing their own.

Still that word “potential” keeps popping up. Along a coastline which has plenty of wind turbines producing clean electricity, Britain’s Energy Coast also has plans for advanced biomass facilities onshore. The Iggesund paperboard plant – one of the area’s bigger employers outside the nuclear sector – was an early trendsetter, with its own biomass plant on-site.

In many ways it is the perfect role model for vibrant local industries: successful, growing and green.

West Cumbria also has its visionaries, such as Nigel Catterson, who champions the Solway Energy Gateway – which seeks to pioneer a new technology, generating electricity from tidal flow in partnership with VerdErg Renewable Energy.

Its spectral marine energy converter has

Wind turbines and biomass alongside a modern factory make a persuasive argument for green power diversity

There are thousands of highly skilled jobs and too few people to fill them

already had successful tests on an old weir spillway in Cumbria, and the company may create a base on the energy coast to pursue its development, with the aim of generating more than 8 gigabytes of power from the Solway Firth – second only to the Severn Estuary in its potential.

Britain’s Energy Coast has its own port at Workington, which has also received a share of the nuclear community cash to equip it to handle modern container traffic, as well as being a key element in the support and maintenance for the windfarms. Meanwhile, just down the coast, Whitehaven is hoping that the millions spent on upgrading its facilities will bring more leisure craft to its safe berths and might even attract cruise ships as an easy access point to the Lake District.

The National Park is still one of the most visited in the UK, and there is encouragement for tourists to travel an extra few miles and discover some of the attractions away from the centre – such as Muncaster Castle, which has stood sentinel on the route to the coast for around 1,000 years.

But what of the future of nuclear?

For all of the talk of other technologies and diverse industries in West Cumbria, nuclear is the elephant in the room for every conversation about Britain’s Energy Coast. The West Cumbria Economic Blueprint – launched by Britain’s Energy

Coast in June 2012 – makes for optimistic reading, with visions of a bright future and infrastructure investment to deliver lasting benefits from the billions of pounds being directed towards nuclear clean-up.

Plans are being matured for a new nuclear power station on the coast – courtesy of Westinghouse and NuGen – and while the deep storage of nuclear waste appears to have been ruled out, at least for the moment, nuclear is still set to be the biggest local employer in West Cumbria for generations to come.

That, of course, is how long it will take to deal with the issues at the Sellafield site – which employs almost 11,000 people and pumps around £500 million a year into the local economy in wages alone, without counting the impact from the extensive local and regional supply chain.

The Economic Blueprint outlined a strategy for growth centred on the strength of the area’s global reputation in the energy sector, its manufacturing prowess, its cluster of world-class research facilities and the potential of the natural environment.

That is not perhaps the image which the rest of nation has, in the past, most readily associated with West Cumbria and the energy coast – but it certainly has potential as the vision for the future.

Tuesday March 26 2013 | the times

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Business Insight

Cover interview

Man with a mission to clean up a dirty word Brian Wilson says with modesty that he does not have any special qualifications for taking on the role as chairman of Britain’s Energy Coast in Cumbria.

Many would disagree

By Christopher Nelson

S

ellafield was already a bad headline for most people, seen as the unpalatable face of nuclear power, when Brian Wilson became Energy Minister in the Labour Government under Tony Blair. But it was Mr Wilson who insisted that the muchmaligned reminder of Britain’s messy nuclear past on Cumbria’s west coast should also be seen as the centre of Britain’s nuclear future – both in terms of improving that legacy and at the same time developing the sort of expertise now driving global recognition of West Cumbria as a centre for expertise in nuclear clean-up.

Visit Japan, the United States, Russia, France – in fact anywhere with a nuclear industry of its own – and the name Sellafield sparks instant recognition. Not primarily recognition of the problems created by a nuclear legacy, but of the sophisticated solutions being developed there. However, here in the UK and in Cumbria itself, the S-word invariably generates a mixed reaction fuelled by historic headlines about errors and leaks – and, more recently, by rows about the billions being spent and what to do with the nuclear waste which remains.

Brian Wilson is as uncompromising as ever about his support for West Cumbria

and the need for the area to be recognised in the UK – as it is around the world – for the solutions it brings to the nuclear industry. “Sellafield has been given a kicking for too long without recognition of its importance for the country,” he says.

“When I became Energy Minister, it was being blamed for everything, and I got to know the arguments very well.

“But I also took a decision that the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority [NDA] would be based in West Cumbria.

My background is very much in the peripheral areas of the country and I am a very firm believer in decentralisation. I championed the logic that if West Cumbria had taken a lot of the flak, then they should also get the benefit of the investment which followed.

“There has always been a massive under-recognition of what this community has given to the country. The entire British nuclear programme for the last 60 years has been dependent on this small part of the UK. Anything West Cumbria gets out of that is a debt that is due – it is not a handout. It is a huge responsibility that West Cumbria has carried: energy security and national security. It is just a strange coincidence that this strategic asset also curves around the edge of the beautiful Lake District National Park.”

Mr Wilson’s background gave him credibility, so when economic development agency Britain’s Energy Coast emerged and was looking for someone to be involved – not in the local politics but as an outward-facing person to represent the aspirations for the area – the former MP for Cunninghame North was approached. It is a role he enjoys.

“Cumbria is still the most important single location in the UK for energy,” he says. “Without it, we don’t have a nuclear industry. It is the same for defence – no Sellafield, no nuclear deterrent – demonstrating the synergy between Sellafield and its near-neighbour Barrow-in-Furness, where they build the Royal Navy’s nuclear-powered submarines.

“It is very rare that you get an industry such as this, with its high value and funding, in such close proximity to what is arguably one of the most beautiful parts of the UK. You have the natural beauty and an industrial powerhouse, vital to the country, virtually side-by-side.”

Mr Wilson believes there should be more pride in the achievements of Sellafield, and in the innovation which happens there through workers and supply chain companies, instead of it simply being a whipping boy for activists seeking easy targets. “That’s what angered me so much about the demands over the years to close down Sellafield,” he says, “because whatever else you can do, you can’t just close it down. People are entitled to their views, but they should also expect their views to be challenged.”

He is, however, no nuclear purist – always a great advocate of a mixed energy system and keen to point out that West Cumbria’s future is not just about nuclear. “Nuclear is the big item here,” he says, “but there is huge potential for renewable energy capacity – tidal, offshore wind, biomass and more. We are always very careful to talk about Britain’s Energy Coast.

“My view is that we need a balanced energy policy. Unless we guard against it, we will come back to where we were 15 years ago with an over-reliance on gas.

And that is where Government needs to be interventionist, because if you leave it to the market, then the market will do what is easiest and cheapest. That might be all right at the moment, but may not be strategically right for the country.”

Mr Wilson regards security of supply, affordability and carbon reduction as the cornerstones of a responsible energy policy. “There is no one fuel which satisfies all three,” he says, “you need a balance. It would be absolutely perverse and foolish to get rid of nuclear with carbon reduction kicking in, because if nuclear power disappears everything you do on renewables would be just cancelled out

Accentuating the positive: Former energy minister Brian Wilson, who put West Cumbria and Sellafield at the heart of Britain’s nuclear activities

by the loss of nuclear. The reality would be falling back on fossil fuel dependence – again.

“We want it to be Britain’s Energy Coast, not Britain’s Nuclear Coast, and we are working to try to encourage renewable and clean technologies in the area. A big part of the sales pitch is the existing skills and expertise in our mature nuclear sector. I see my job as being to interface with Government and external agencies to send out the message that West Cumbria is ready and willing to respond to the challenges, and to make sure that message does not get lost in the clamour.

“Most people think of the Lake District completely separately from Sellafield; they are two entirely different images. But it cannot be overlooked that the nuclear industry generates high-value wages that are of direct benefit to the county’s economy. There are few areas so highly dependent on a single industry or employer – and it generates a huge number of visitors. Which is of most value to the county – a hill-walker coming for the weekend, or a scientist who comes to see what high-tech businesses are doing in Cumbria?”

the times | Tuesday March 26 2013

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Business Insight Focus Britainon Energ ’s y Coast

How Britain’s Energy Coast is emerging from undergrowth of the quangos

I

Sellafield?

We are now in a seller’s market for its skills and experience

There is a danger, Mr Wilson believes, that people think of the West Cumbria site as “a problem with a legacy”, and do not recognise the skills and experience developed here. “They do not see it as an asset with great potential, “ he says.

“They see it as somewhere they deal with problems, and it is a bit ‘out of sight, out of mind’.

“In some ways that is how Sellafield thinks of itself – whereas, in fact, we are now in a seller’s market for Sellafield’s skills and experience, because the issues the site has been dealing with for decades are now arising all over the world and it should be more than possible for West Cumbria to benefit from the international market in decommissioning. It is why we went on a trade mission to Japan and South Korea recently, and why we’re planning more trade missions with local companies. Our services are in demand. We have to change our local mindset to be more positive and more global in our outlook.

“I always draw the comparison with the North Sea and the way industries were in the 1990s. When the price of oil went below $10 a barrel, they got a

very clear wake-up call: export or die.

With a lot of help from Government, they turned themselves into exporters.

That is why now when you go anywhere in the world in the oil and gas industry you find companies from Aberdeen and Newcastle.

“There are obvious parallels with the supply chain here – they could be supplying not just Sellafield but decommissioning operations across the world. And it is not just nuclear – it is high-end engineering and using hard-won skills and experience to do an incredibly difficult job on a huge scale. Think of decommissioning like complex surgery on a truly monumental scale and you begin to get some appreciation of the challenges and the extraordinary expertise required to meet them.

“When people from here are talking to their peers in the worldwide nuclear community, West Cumbria is seen as a place rich in innovation and problemsolving. All of that is exportable. These are world-class problems and we are developing and delivering world-class solutions. That is something of which we should be proud.”

t has taken a while for Britain’s Energy Coast (BEC) to emerge from the undergrowth of local restructuring and economic development agencies. In Cumbria, it was an exceptional situation because of the complexity of the nuclear industry and the various interest groups involved.

A lot of time and effort was spent rationalising the organisation and narrowing down its function to address more strategic issues. With the demise of the Northwest Regional Development Agency, the core budget for BEC diminished and along with it went the perception that the organisation was a source of funding for every idea, good or bad. Now, BEC concentrates on how its resources can best be utilised for the area. There is talk about investment rather than funding.

BEC has an annual budget of £8.5 million. The largest share, £3.5m, comes from Nuclear Management Partners (NMP), the parent organisation for Sellafield Ltd. The NMP consortium of American company URS, British company AMEC and French company Areva is managing and operating the Sellafield site and the engineering design capability based at Risley in Warrington.

Funding from NMP was built into their bid for the business, with a strong emphasis on community benefit – so it is not charity.

A further £2.5m comes from Sellafield Ltd, along with £2.5m from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, all channelled through BEC to deliver a meaningful impact for the area, paying for projects on the ground and drawing in substantial extra cash.

In strategic terms, the objectives are to create an infrastructure and environment that maximises the benefit for West Cumbria of future investment in the energy industries. That means ensuring the skills and the infrastructure exist to support these projects, and it is the guiding principle and central thrust of the West Cumbria Economic Blueprint – a document which outlines where attention and investment needs to be focused

if the area is to achieve its full potential.

The strategy talks about social infrastructure – making the towns more dynamic, places where people will want to live. It covers skills – one of the biggest investments is in a construction skills centre. It is about transport – the Port of Workington has benefited from funding to improve its facilities and, as the biggest port between the Mersey and the Clyde, there is the potential for a lot of logistics traffic to stay local and to be kept off the roads.

High-speed broadband is another massive area of importance for West Cumbria, so that the area can be unique in what it offers businesses. There is also talk of working with rural communities and how they can become self-sustaining. BEC can have an influence on how these ideas are developed, to put more forms of energy into the energy coast.

Brian Wilson is a realist. “You can’t do everything with £8.5m,” he says, “but that pot of money can certainly help to give West Cumbria an edge. It will never be enough because this area has legacy issues of old industries, but it can be used to leverage other funds. We say that for every pound we get from the nuclear industries, we should be seeking to get a further pound from other sources, such as the European Regional Development Fund or the Regional Growth Fund.

That £8.5m is also quite a lot per head. But do the people of Cumbria appreciate what BEC is trying to do for them? “There is such an alphabet soup of organisations that for one to stand out and people to welcome it is unlikely,” Mr Wilson says. “The reputation of the organisation is tied up with what is delivered and I think there is an expectation that the nuclear industry will put cash directly into the local community, but the fact that it is channelled through BEC is not necessarily recognised by people.

“However, projects now coming to fruition will improve that appreciation of our role, and that’s something to build on to make a significant and lasting impact in West Cumbria – a new legacy of our own.”

Tuesday March 26 2013 | the times

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Business Insight Focus Britainon Energ ’s y Coast

Training & development

Where the nuclear industry’s new nucleus of talent grows

By Elizabeth Dunn

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he Energus state-of-the-art training and conferencing centre in West Cumbria is moving into a new phase of its development, designed to encourage wider use of the facilities and to identify new business opportunities. Standing on a seven-acre site at Lillyhall in Workington, Energus was opened in 2009 at a cost of £21.5 million. The stunning building – looking out towards the sea and the offshore windfarm – is a symbol of the energy industries which gave birth to the centre.

Created as a not-for-profit company, Energus was built with funding from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), the National Skills Academy for Nuclear, Sellafield Ltd, the European Regional Development Fund, and the Northern Way and West Lakes Renaissance economic development initiatives – both of which disappeared in 2011 along with the North West Regional Development Agency.

With a long leasehold, Energus manages the building and facilities, and maximising and extending the use of these is the primary concern as the enterprise moves forward. The principal activities currently undertaken within Energus are the delivery of training and education, the hosting of regional, national and international conferences, and housing organisations which provide business support and encourage

enterprise and innovation across Cumbria. Those include GEN II Training Ltd, the University of Cumbria and the Centre for Leadership Performance.

The nuclear industry is an important user of the building. Energus is the flagship facility for the National Skills Academy for Nuclear and is licensed to operate the nucleargraduates contract on behalf of the NDA. The nucleargraduates programme aims to create the talented engineers, scientists and managers needed to sustain the UK’s nuclear industry. Key clients of this high-profile programme include Rolls-Royce, the NDA, Sellafield Ltd, Magnox Ltd, International Nuclear Services Ltd and the Environment Agency.

A vital element of Energus, hidden behind its glossy facade, is a worldclass, state-of-the-art engineering workshop where GEN II delivers its apprentice training with facilities for over 120 learners. Since Energus opened almost four years ago, more than 600 apprentices have been trained there, while hundreds of higher education and degree-level students have also enjoyed the palatial high-tech surroundings.

Energus boasts a 200-seater auditorium with advanced audio-visual capabilities and IT (information technology) facilities, and has hosted many events aimed at business. That is a prime area for developing the company, according to Energus executive director Nigel Couzens, who has been

Energus is primarily engaged with energy but seeks stronger links with other sectors State of the art: The Energus training and conference centre in West Cumbria

The firm’s smart image

seconded from the NDA to help the facility achieve its ambitious vision of growing the organisation to a more secure level and developing new areas of work.

“Energus has already built the business to a position where it is self-funding, with support over the last two years from the joint venture company Nucleus,” Mr Couzens says. “But the challenge now is to move forward and strengthen its position regionally, nationally and internationally as a centre

of excellence for the provision of training, education and business support.

“Inevitably, Energus is primarily engaged with the energy sector, but we are seeking to build stronger links with other key sectors such as construction, tourism and public services. Another dimension of our future plans is developing Energus as a venue for social and corporate entertainment, to help maximise usage of what is a fantastic facility for local stakeholders and the whole of Cumbria.”

Leaders embrace opportunities of chaotic world Commercial viewpoint

by Lesley Bowen, managing director at the Centre for Leadership Performance

V

UCA – volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous – was a term first used by the US military after the Second World War to express their view of the world. It was more truly embraced by the US government and then by the business community after the events of 9/11, and is now quite widely used as shorthand by leaders – military, governmental and business – to capture the chaotic, turbulent and rapidly changing world in which we all live. For leaders, VUCA is the new normal.

Businesses in Cumbria have had to face their fair share of VUCA-type critical events in the last few years. On the local level, there was foot and mouth disease and a series of devastating floods, while on the global scale there has

been the emergence of game-changing general purpose technologies such as the web, mobile communications and social media. These challenges and opportunities stretch the resilience and capabilities of leaders to respond and to remain ahead of a continuous wave of change.

The abilities of leaders to adapt to – and to embrace – the opportunities that a VUCA world presents are key to the survival and success of our businesses and communities. The need for more collaboration, and increased agility and adaptability, are critical aspects of leadership in this complex world. So, on a practical level, what can businesses and organisations do to identify and nurture leaders and managers with these qualities?

In terms of leadership development, on-the-job training, mentoring and coaching can be useful aids in helping leaders to climb the ladder of an organisation, to develop leadership qualities – and they can have positive impacts on performance. It is, however, the programmes that explore leaders’ continuing ability to learn – to absorb, share and apply new knowledge – that

are an imperative organisational capability in the face of an uncertain and complex future.

Creative and agile mindsets, more than job-related competences, are needed now. Organisational learning over individual task-oriented skills development. Leadership programmes that raise the propensity for thinking and learning across the board, that present participants with opportunities to learn from different contexts and that expose participants to creativity and innovation – these are needed to support the development of a new wave of learning, agile organisations comfortable in the new normal.

The Centre for Leadership Performance aims to work with our leaders in Cumbria to support their learning and development, to encourage and foster connections with people and ideas within and from outside the region, and through them to better exploit and grow all that Cumbria has to offer in the new VUCA world.

For more information, visit our website www.cforlp.org.uk or phone us on 01900 609 160.

Enthusiastic advocate of mentoring and coaching: Lesley Bowen

the times | Tuesday March 26 2013

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Business Insight Focus Britainon Energ ’s y Coast

Regeneration

Support where it is most needed Britain’s Energy Coast is also an economic development agency boosting West Cumbria

By James Hardy

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conomic development agency Britain’s Energy Coast (BEC) has a broad approach when it comes to creating a brighter, more prosperous and low-carbon future for West Cumbria. From helping entrepreneurs to start their own businesses, to investing millions to improve the potential of the area’s major port; and from providing expert advice to help a nuclear supply chain company branch into renewables, to funding a new centre to train local young people in traditional and cutting-edge construction skills so they can literally help build the area’s future.

Whether funding major events in the region’s calendar or leading West Cumbrian delegations on global trade missions, BEC comes in many guises. The unifying factor is economic growth. New jobs, new opportunities for businesses and new prospects for communities.

While the brush may be broad, BEC’s chief executive Steve Szostak is eager to point out that the “cocktail” of interventions by the organisation is helping to create a brighter picture for the area.

“We’re relatively new in terms of what services and functions we provide,” he says. “We’re the closest West Cumbria has had to a one stop shop when it comes to economic development.

“Businesses and people still associate regeneration agencies with physical infrastructure projects, which is natural as they have a visual impact. However, we do so much more that isn’t always obvious. Helping someone to get their head around starting up their own business can be just as important. Who knows what they will achieve and where their business can go? Some of West Cumbria’s leading SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises] started off on our Linkstart programme.”

Linkstart is a free programme offering training, expert advice and grant funding for business start-ups. The programme will celebrate its 18th birthday in

April, and has helped almost 1,100 businesses to create more than 1,400 jobs.

Emma-Jayne Gooch received Linkstart support to help set up NuExec Consulting – a recruitment agency, run with business partner Lisa Stanger, which focuses on the nuclear sector. “We both knew how to recruit people,” she says, “but not how to run a business – so joining the programme was important.”

Survival rates for new-starts in West Cumbria buck the national trend, with 72 per cent of Linkstart businesses still trading after three years. The follow-on support for start-ups – Backing Business – has played a large part in this. Another free programme, it is designed to help businesses increase sales and profitability and to identify alternative areas for growth. In five years, it has helped 700 West Cumbrian businesses to create and safeguard 330 jobs, and has generated £3.5 million in sales.

Meanwhile, the Energy Opportunities Supply Chain Project (EOSCP) offers support to West Cumbrian companies, primarily by providing access to information and advice that can help them win more business in the local nuclear supply chain, as well as branching out into other renewable and low-carbon technologies.

It also helps businesses to shout about their achievements – such as Maryport-based WallRover Limited, which won the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority Innovation Award for SMEs after being encouraged to enter by EOSCP advisers.

The WallRover ROV – remote operated vehicle – was chosen for its unique wall-scaling ability, and for the innovative features that make it lighter, quicker, cheaper and safer to operate than previous alternatives. Brainchild of Dr Gary Sewell, the radical design was 14 years in the making and was realised thanks to collaboration with another local success story, Smith Engineering. Dr Sewell is now exploring ways of developing the company’s commercial capacity with the same EOSCP advisers who helped him achieve a national profile.

“Strengthening the commercial prowess of innovative SMEs is central to much of our activity with the supply chain,” says Steve Szostak. “West Cumbria has a long history of innovation, and we’re constantly seeing local people coming up with world-class solutions to

Dr Gary Sewell with WallRover director Richard Smith: Exploring ways of developing commercial capacity

Preparing the ground

Albion Square Almost £3 million of BEC funding will help pave the way for a new office complex which will see 900 workers move from the Sellafield site to a prime location in Whitehaven town centre.

Port of Workington Utilising funding from both Nuclear Management Partners (NMP) and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, BEC invested £5.7m in a new container-handling facility and supporting infrastructure to enable the port to deal with

significant volumes of seaborne container traffic – and so elevate this key local asset on the European marine network.

Britain’s Energy Coast Construction Skills Centre Just over half of the £7m needed to realise a state-of-the-art facility at Lakes College in Lillyhall came from NMP via BEC. It will equip hundreds of young people with the skills needed to deliver a wide variety of construction projects, in particular those related to the energy sector.

the challenges at the Sellafield site. We want to harness that innovative spirit and showcase it to the world.

The West Cumbria Economic Blueprint, launched by BEC in June 2012, outlined a strategy for growth centred on the strength of the area’s global reputation in the energy sector, its manufacturing prowess, its cluster of world-class research facilities and the potential of the natural environment.

A key theme was the need to globalise West Cumbria’s appeal, in particular the products, services and know-how in nuclear decommissioning. Just a few months later, BEC led a delegation of 12 West Cumbrian companies to South Korea to learn more about their nuclear development plans, and to Japan to see if they could assist with the complex clean-up operation at Fukushima.

“It marked a change in perspective for BEC and it certainly opened the eyes of many of the companies who took part,” says Luke Dicicco, head of communications and inward investment at BEC. “The fact that the West Cumbrian contingent represented more than half of the nationwide delegation just showed how we’re leading the way when it comes to this field.”

Supporting businesses may take many forms, but for BEC it is a partnership approach. “We may deliver programmes and help to fund activities, but there are

Global thinking: West Cumbrians made a majority group in delegation to South Korea

Westlakes Science and Technology Park Owned and operated by BEC, the park is home to more than 70 companies employing more than 1,300 staff. It is set to grow further once a new office development, Pillar House, is completed next year. The park is part of BEC’s wider property portfolio, which includes Blencathra Business Centre, managed workspace in Moss Bay at Workington and assets in Lillyhall.

many other organisations and companies who help us deliver our success,” says Mr Szostak.

“We’re fortunate to have the full support of our local authorities and Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership, backed by funding from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, Sellafield Ltd and Nuclear Management Partners. BEC Business Cluster brings together the combined expertise of more than 200 companies, and their continued support is crucial to the delivery of the Blueprint.

There will be an element of building things, but it is what goes on inside them that makes the real difference – making sure they become vibrant hotbeds for local enterprise and West Cumbrian ingenuity.”

Tuesday March 26 2013 | the times

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Business Insight

Forum on Energy

It’s all about keeping the lights on with the right mix of powers Lively discussion on a Cumbrian future that could well see a wide range of fuel sources

By Mike Cowley

I

t was in 1992 that The Sun published its famous headline attacking Neil Kinnock and requesting that if he won the election, “will the last person to leave Britain turn out the lights”.

The powerful verbal imagery of being left in the dark certainly had an impact on the final result.

Mr Kinnock may no longer be aiming to become our Prime Minister, but there is a growing awareness that the UK’s lights will in fact start to at least dim in two or three years’ time – and new measures need to be put in place now to stop the situation getting even worse.

While the Budget made a cursory mention of energy in that it opted for fracking to produce shale gas as its focus, and while the Coalition has recently given a nod to nuclear by agreeing planning permission for a reactor at Hinkley Point in Somerset, there are real issues with both projects.

Fracking for gas is still in its infancy, and the Hinkley Point project – which offers to create up to 25,000 jobs – could well collapse as EDF, the French firm behind it, is in a stand-off with the Government over the level of subsidies.

Gas remains a major player in energy production in the UK, but the recent news that it is running out due to the effects of bad weather has set nerves jangling once again. The fact that much of our gas comes from abroad – particularly from Russia, which has already played with turning it off – means nuclear is very much back on the scene, because it is home-grown and now stable in every sense of the term.

The answer to the UK’s energy crisis seems to lie on the desolate West Cumbria coastline – threatened by rising sea waters thanks to global warning – which stretches from Silloth in the north to Barrow-in-Furness in the south and has Workington as its hub. Here, the West Cumbria Trades Hall Centre for the Unemployed stands as a constant reminder to the people of Workington of grim days in the not-so-distant past – as well as of potential perils we face today.

Established in 1981, the hall marked a milestone in the series of crises that have bedevilled the area, as key local industries such as coal, steel and high-grade iron ore all fell by the wayside, leaving the whole of West Cumbria as an unemployment blackspot. The hall still offers redundancy training, as a reminder that things have not fully moved on.

Even the unique local ball game known as “uppies and downies” – a form of football which dates back to Medieval times – seems to bear testimony to the rollercoaster ride Workington has enjoyed since its heyday, when it was producing the world’s railway lines. But not far down the road, in the Lillyhall Business Park, stands the Energus Centre – an indication of the good times that many believe now lie ahead, not only for Workington, but for all of Cumbria’s west coast.

Energus is a high-tech, £20 million skills, training and education facility, run

by Britain’s Energy Coast. It has become the focal point of a masterplan to reject the seemingly inevitable rundown of the region’s nuclear industry, and to turn it into what it is today – the single most important energy producer in the UK. The nuclear industry in the form of Sellafield is no longer a dirty word, and has been restored to its rightful place as the dynamic centre of business in West Cumbria. Still the most important plant on the energy coast, Sellafield now finds itself firmly at the centre of an energy mix which includes renewables such as

wind, wave and tidal power, along with offshore oil and gas.

Forget images of Chernobyl and disasters in Japan: the latest nuclear plants are as far removed from the old as the Large Hadron Collider is from the spindryer. A cluster has formed which owes much to nuclear – the National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) can be found here, as can numerous specialists in waste decommissioning – with all of them making important contributions to the local economy.

It was money from Sellafield which built the Energus Centre, and the nuclear message was unashamedly very much centre-stage when The Times Forum on Britain’s Energy Coast was held here. And it was at this event that the warning came from Huw Morgan of the NNL that, come 2015-16, there will be “a short-term energy gap which could see the lights dimming in certain parts of the country”. Mr Morgan warned that there was a need to fill the gap until more nuclear comes onstream and positive developments such as tidal become a reality.

Chaired by The Times columnist Magnus Linklater, the Forum was a lively event due in no small part to three local authority leaders appearing on the panel, and was held before a packed audience. It soon became obvious that, like most regions, West Cumbria is using its unique offering to make a pitch for the multi-million pot of money soon to become available through the Coalition’s decision in the Budget to take up the Lord Heseltine report – which will allow the regions more fiscal autonomy.

Mr Linklater kicked off the debate by questioning how much West Cumbria can control its own future, and what role the Government has to play. “I do believe West Cumbria is a centre of excellence for regeneration,” said Steve Szostak, chief executive of Britain’s Energy Coast Cumbria, “and we are well

The Times columnist Magnus Linklater, sixth from the left at top table, chairs a Forum that was sometimes decidedly fiery

We have the potential to to really pull together something quite special

placed to take up the opportunities and challenges as long as the Government recognises this.

“The nuclear industry has put a lot of money into regeneration here: £9m annually. If we can start to use that as a building-block for drawing other funding from central Government – or indeed from the private sector – then we have got the beginnings of something very special here.”

Rory O’Neill, the Sellafield representative on the panel and a newcomer to the area, showed that he was already a fierce advocate for West Cumbria. “I think we have the potential here for a perfect storm,” he said. “We can really pull together something quite special. It does need money, it does need investment – and infrastructure is a massive issue, both in terms of transport and super-broadband.

“We need to think about how to make the money from the major industries stay in the region, so we can get the incubators in place to grow the businesses and to be the future employers.”

The debate then moved on to how companies can recruit key people to what is seen as an isolated region. Huw Morgan pointed out that he was probably not the best person to answer the question, as the NNL had little difficulty recruiting the sort of people they need for research and development. “What I think is the bigger issue,” he said, “is building the manufacturing and supply chains that we need to grow our way out of the economic situation we are in

the times | Tuesday March 26 2013

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Business Insight Focus Britainon Energ ’s y Coast

Passions run high over the issue of a waste opportunity

S

Sellafield Ltd

– and we have a number of initiatives underway.”

Gary McKeating, head of socioeconomics with Nuclear Management Partners, insisted that an equally difficult problem to address was the disparity of wages in the region. “I think it’s almost shameful that, as a nuclear industry, we sit next to areas of real poverty,” he said.

Yet the energy sector in West Cumbria is far from confined to nuclear.

There is a range of energy-related industries – offshore gas and oil being prominent – and renewable energies are pushing to the fore. Social entrepreneur Nigel Catterson – who is involved with a breakthrough project to harness the tidal power of the Solway Firth – took the opportunity to press his cause.

“The one thing the UK has is more tidal energy per head of the population than anywhere else on the planet,” he said, “and if we are not pursuing that there is something drastically wrong with our policy. At the moment, we are paying ridiculous subsidies on flawed technologies [referring to windfarms].”

The issue of management skills needed for the smaller companies in the region to progress was taken up by Lesley Bowen, chief executive of the Centre for Leadership Performance. “We find the main problem is communication and not looking at businesses holistically enough,” she said. “This is quite surprising when the businesses have been successful – or were successful and maybe are now stagnating.”

The question of how the region was creating a wave of home-grown talent for the next generation was addressed

by Nigel Couzens, chair of the Britain’s Energy Coast Campus. “If you had asked me five years ago if we had got it right, I would have said no,” he said. “With the tens of millions that have been invested since, we have now got the right infrastructure to make it happen. There has been a sea change in the youngsters’ approach to education and the employers’ willingness to get engaged.”

There is still a long way to go, however, in that the successes must be balanced against the fact that West Cumbria still has the highest percentage of youth unemployment in the country.

There was also shared concern that the area is too reliant on the energy sector, with low-paid jobs in tourism being the only other option.

Peter Frost-Pennington of Muncaster Castle made the point forcibly that tourism remains very much part of the West Cumbrian mix. “I think tourism is seen as a bit of a Cinderella story,” he said, “and it is very difficult to attract the high-quality people you need in a seasonal business. Yet we remain a great gateway to work, in that we employ people from age 13. We are very much part of Cumbria plc – and we co-exist and complement the energy sector.”

With West Cumbria now being the major single source of energy in the UK, the Government would be remiss to overlook the region’s role in keeping our lights on.

immering tensions between the three local authorities representing West Cumbria on the panel came to the surface at The Times Forum. The two issues that have divided not only the local politicians but also the communities they represent – whether the area should be one unitary authority, and the disposal of nuclear waste at Sellafield – received a public airing.

It was chairman Magnus Linklater who nudged the debate in the direction of politics by dropping “a little hand grenade” in the form of a question on the creation of a unitary authority. Tony Markley of Cumbria County Council was the first into the verbal battle. “I fully agree with a unitary authority,” he said. “I was part of the group that tried to do this in 2007, which was then blocked by the MPs in this county.

“We had £22 million of savings to bring forward, but Government wouldn’t allow us to do it. I can’t get over the fact that we have 285 councillors running this county and something like seven chief executives and a raft of assistant directors and officers doing much the same work.”

Alan Smith, leader of Allerdale Borough Council, then stepped into the fray.

“I don’t think a full county council unitary model would work,” he said. “At the moment, the districts are looking at various ways of combining offices and services – merging them, sharing them, ways we can save money for the taxpayer.”

Elaine Woodburn, the feisty leader of Copeland Borough Council, also came out fighting. “I am not actually against unitary, contrary to what others write about me.

I am not really fussed what local government looks like.

What I am passionate about is I believe local communities should have control over their own destinies and over their own futures. We have seen too many times that whether we

like to hear it or not, people in Ambleside are not really that fussed about what happens at Sellafield.

“I think most councillors would actually welcome reducing their number, but it’s got to be done in the right way – not being imposed, as was the way the county tried to do it last time. Everybody then automatically takes a step back and goes into defence mode. The only way we can do it is collectively: we’ve got to find what we have in common, where we can work best together, where we can actually represent our communities.”

Chairman Magnus Linklater called a halt by asking the audience to vote by a show of hands – and there was a slight majority in favour of a unitary authority. Then came the even more contentious issue of whether the decision not to allow further investigations into the deep storage of nuclear waste in Cumbria was a wise one.

Councillor Woodburn was first off the mark. “It wasn’t a wise decision for the people I represent,” she said, “nor do I think it was a wise decision to the people of West Cumbria, because we still have that cloud hanging over us. We still need a solution, a longterm solution to deal with nuclear waste – and it was a decision based on politics.

A wise decision is based on facts, and we didn’t have the facts to make that decision.”

Councillor Markley stood his ground: “My committee said they did not want it, and I also represent Cumbria and the vast majority of Cumbria said they did not want it.”

The argument heated up as Councillor Woodburn interjected. “I’m pretty appalled sitting here having to listen to somebody who took a vote on the future of the committee I represent and actually has got that completely wrong.”

She went on to insist that the voters did not have sufficient information.

The chairman moved to calm the situation by

calling on Huw Morgan of the NNL to give his opinion on whether people had had enough information to make the decision – and what were the implications of the vote against proceeding with a geological survey.

“I should say I rather support Elaine’s position,” Mr Morgan said, “in that as a science and technology-based organisation, we would always espouse a position where you make objective, informed decisions based on facts.

“I think in this particular case it is regrettable that the county and the country has missed an opportunity to gather some relevant facts that could have been useful in making a decision as to whether a repository would have been suitable for West Cumbria, or even whether or not a repository is suitable full stop.”

Alan Smith of Allerdale Borough Council again took up the baton. “We’ve still got the problem of the waste at Sellafield. You just can’t pull a tarpaulin over it and say ‘Well, that’s the job done’.

Stage Four was a desktop inquest. There wouldn’t be one piece of earth moved or one hole dug – it was just to see if the area was safe. Now, that has been taken away from us.”

Steve Szostak of Britain’s Energy Coast saw the No decision as having been a missed opportunity. “The study would have been good for West Cumbria,” he said, “in that for five years we would have been in the spotlight of research.”

Sellafield’s Rory O’Neill then expressed what he said was a personal view: “I think it was the worst of all possible decisions. We’ve put ourselves in limbo in that we don’t know whether the geology of the region is suitable or not, and this is a question that is not going to go away.”

Another show-of-hands vote indicated that the vast majority of the local audience thought the decision had been wrong.

Tuesday March 26 2013 | the times

12

Business Insight Focus Britainon Energ ’s y Coast

Research

New-age nuclear challenges call on lab expertise Fresh programme to expand the National Nuclear Laboratory

These are exciting times for the sector after a long period of reduced focus

By James Hardy

N

uclear research and development (R&D) has seen a dramatic decline in the UK over the past two decades, with Government spending virtually disappearing and employee numbers declining in proportion.

This is no surprise, given that Government policy throughout this period focused on the closing down and safe clean-up of the nuclear sector, with no vision of expansion or recognition of the need for new technology.

Recently, however, there has been renewed enthusiasm for reactor lifetime extension, innovation in waste management and clean-up, hope for newbuild and activity to progress plans for a deep repository. These shifts bring both an increased opportunity for new technology and the need for a new generation of skilled individuals.

With that in mind, the House of Lords undertook an influential review of the nuclear R&D sector in 2011, and concluded that a strategic national programme was needed along with a stronger, central role for the UK’s National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL). Led by chief scientific advisor Professor Sir John Beddington, an advisory group from Government, industry and academia worked throughout 2012 to develop more detailed plans which should help to restore the UK to a more central role on the world’s nuclear stage.

The NNL evolved from the R&D division of BNFL (British Nuclear Fuels Ltd) when that company was split up in 2008, with the aim of retaining and developing the UK’s vital experience and knowledge across the full nuclear fuel cycle.

The company continues to be owned by Government, while being run on a commercial basis by SBM – a consortium of Serco, Battelle and the University of Manchester. This “GO-CO” model – Government-owned and contractoroperated – is used elsewhere in the UK nuclear industry.

Unlike other national nuclear laboratories, such as those in the US, the NNL does not currently receive any direct funding from Government. All of the company’s £80 million turnover comes from customers in return for specific packages of work. The organisation,

The company is still Government-owned while run on a commercial basis however, manages to keep a strong profile on the global stage, with record numbers of publications in journals and at conferences, along with active involvement in UK and international committees and technical groups.

The NNL has around 800 staff

The NNL has around 800 staff, most of whom have degrees in science, technology or engineering, and the company has a world-leading suite of R&D facilities. It operates from six locations, with the vast majority of employees being in the North West – the nuclear industry’s heartland. Around 450 NNL staff are based within the footprint of Britain’s Energy Coast in West Cumbria – either on the Sellafield site or at the company’s engineering base in Workington.

In the long term, one important element of the NNL’s future will be the full commissioning of the Central Laboratory on the Sellafield site. Phase 1 of the building is currently operational, housing “inactive” laboratories (where no radioactive materials are handled), as well as uranium laboratories and the PuMA laboratory, which handles small quantities of plutonium and minor actinides – chemical elements with atomic numbers.

Work to commission Phase 2 is underway, and these facilities, capable of handling larger quantities of plutonium, are expected to be operational in early 2014. At that point, the NNL will be able to manufacture test rods of mixed-oxide fuel (containing a mixture of uranium and plutonium) for advanced reactors, as well as handling alternative nuclear fuel materials such as thorium which are being increas-

Putting safety first

ingly assessed for longer-term use in advanced fuel cycles.

The Central Laboratory’s Phase 3 – a suite of five heavily shielded “hot cells” – will be capable of handling the most radioactive specimens in the world, for instance highly irradiated fuel samples or high-level waste. These units are designed to be removable, so that after each use the stainless steel cell itself can be retracted and sent to a nearby cleaning station, being replaced with a clean unit. With five bays and six cells, all the locations can be kept in use while a cell is being decontaminated and prepared for its next experiment.

The NNL’s customer base includes most of the major players in the UK nuclear industry, with Sellafield Ltd and EDF Energy being the two largest.

An important element of the NNL’s work for EDF Energy is specialist examination of samples from the operating advanced gas-cooled reactors (AGR) fleet, including graphite samples taken from reactor cores.

The results of these tests are used

by EDF Energy to support their safety case for continued operation of those reactors. This means that the NNL is helping to keep the UK’s current fleet running – and the country’s lights on – as well as developing brand new technology for use in future plants.

However, there is still plenty of work in looking at longer-term opportunities. These range from RadBall – an innovative passive radiation detector, already trialled in the US and at Sellafield to great customer acclaim and now being assessed for use in the Fukushima clean-up effort in Japan – to a project for the European Space Agency looking at the use of americium-241 as a novel material from which to make “space batteries” to generate continuous heat and power over periods of several decades in missions heading out to deep space.

There is also plenty of more conventional work in between, much of it helping to safeguard the UK’s specialist nuclear technical skills. That is a remit given to the NNL by the Department of Energy and Climate Change, which is becoming ever more important given the ageing demographic of the nuclear industry’s workforce and the fact that many key “subject matter experts” are moving towards retirement.

The NNL also works with others to help ensure the supply chain can be as strong and well-equipped as possible. One specific example is the Innovus programme (see page 16), based in West Cumbria, which will promote and support technology innovation, development and commercialisation locally.

It now appears clear that a new age of nuclear R&D may be on the way.

Earlier this month, the UK joined the international Jules Horowitz research reactor project, based in France, and the NNL was asked to lead the UK’s participation. As we move towards a national strategic programme in nuclear R&D, the company’s role has never been more important.

“These are exciting times for the nuclear R&D sector and in particular for NNL,” said the NNL’s external relations director Adrian Bull. “After a long period of reduced focus on research, we are seeing strong signs from UK Government that they recognise the importance of being engaged in longer-term technology development, so that the country is well placed to participate fully in such projects in decades to come.”

the times | Tuesday March 26 2013

13

Business Insight Focus Britainon Energ ’s y Coast

Engineering

Unique radiation scanner can support the Japanese in their nuclear clean-up Phil’s career path ‘beyond the box’

P

N-Visage™ combines sensor technology and 3D-computer modelling to provide users with an accurate picture

Tsunami prompted ‘fantastic’ reception for imaging concept

By Christopher Nelson

“L

ike finding a rare Picasso in the attic” was how one Japanese executive described seeing the unique radiation imaging and mapping technology developed by REACT Engineering and its research and development (R&D) business Createc. That moment of revelation has led to REACT launching a major R&D programme to develop a bespoke version of Createc’s N-Visage™ technology, with the aim of helping the clean-up at the Fukushima nuclear site devastated by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

“When the tsunami hit the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant,” said REACT managing director Steve Wood, “it was a wake-up call to the world about the effects natural disasters can have on the modern way of living, and the incredible challenges posed in recovery and cleanup following the event. TEPCO – the nuclear power station operator in Japan – had to change overnight from a mindset of being a company that operated nuclear power plants in an environment of certainty, to a context of complete uncertainty, dealing with extreme recovery, clean-up and decommissioning issues.

“With this level of political, economic, human, technical and logistical challenge, the Japanese had to strip away all

previously conceived ideas, protocol and cultural barriers and find the people and technology to help – urgently.”

The search led them to two small, innovative companies based in West Cumbria: REACT Engineering Ltd and Create Technologies Ltd (Createc), founded

by Trevor Craig, Steve Knight and Pete Woolaghan – three partners who share a devotion to the principle of applying technology to solve problems and investing in the right people to carry the business forward.

REACT Engineering began in 1994, fuelled by the partners’ determination to really make a difference in the nuclear decommissioning industry. Createc was formed more recently when Dr Matt Mellor joined them from Oxford, bringing expertise in medical imaging and also an understanding of integrating technologies. Dr Mellor quickly realised that the industry needed cutting-edge innovation combined with practical common-sense, and he was the catalyst for the creation of Createc – which now employs six scientists engaged in R&D for the nuclear, defence, security and medical imaging industries.

Trevor Craig and REACT managing director Steve Wood were originally invited to post-tsunami Tokyo by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and the Nuclear Industry Association, as part of a delegation put together by UK Trade and Investment to showcase the UK’s expertise in decommissioning and clean-up.

“TEPCO got very excited,” Mr Craig said, “when they saw how our groundbreaking N-Visage™ 3-D gamma imaging system and unique software could identify radia-

tion sources, build up a dose map and – more importantly – be used as a ‘What if’ scenario tool for intelligent strategic planning of clean-up and decommissioning operations.”

Mr Wood added that “One senior executive said it was ‘like finding a rare Picasso in the attic’. They’d been offered a lot of radiation detection systems from major global suppliers, but considered ours to be unique and one of the most exciting.”

REACT are currently using their experience gained from the many clean-up and decommissioning projects over 20 years at Sellafield to develop a system specifically for the problems that may be encountered at Fukushima, and this is being demonstrated in April to a Japanese delegation. If successful, N-VisageTM could well be one of the innovative technologies from the UK to make a real difference in the clean-up and restoration of Fukushima.

Mr Woolaghan was part of a mission, backed by Britain’s Energy Coast, to Japan in November 2012 to demonstrate the technology, and was inspired by the reception he received. “It was fantastic,” he said. “The Japanese really understand how we could make a difference and they seemed extremely keen to make this happen.

“We see this as another endorsement of our business ethic – that success is down to the people we recruit and the environment we provide, so that they develop as professionals and as people to be the best that they can be. It is a very simple principle, but it has put us in a position as world leaders in our fields.”

hil Redfern is a prime example of the way in which REACT Engineering attracts and fosters homegrown talent. He first worked at REACT for a year after finishing his A-levels, and went on to study for a Masters in mechanical engineering at Leeds University. REACT sponsored his final year, and also employed him during summer breaks.

Mr Redfern now manages one of REACT’s business areas and reports directly to managing director Steve Wood. Aged 28 and married with a house in Whitehaven close enough to the Lake District to indulge his passion for mountain biking, he talks with an infectious enthusiasm. “REACT is for me a perfect working environment

because of the freedom it gives its employees,” he says.

“The career path has a lot of flexibility and also fast-tracks capable people into managerial roles, so employees can develop their career how they want to.

“The way we work allows us to be creative, and – to employ an over-used cliché – to ‘think outside the box’.

A senior person in one of the large players in the nuclear industry once said that people at REACT don’t even see the box – which everyone took as a real compliment. We are all encouraged to take personal responsibility for work and client relationships, and are not ‘spoon-fed’. It makes things more challenging, but fits really well with my values and how I like to work, and it has driven me forward.”

Harnessing brain power

W

hile N-Visage™ is an actual product, most of what REACT Engineering has to offer involves harnessing the company’s brain power to deliver consultancy services to its clients – developing innovative and robust engineering and management solutions to address nuclear decommissioning, waste management and asset care challenges.

“We have experience supporting strategy development at all levels of the nuclear industry,” says REACT managing director Steve Wood, “national, site and project specific strategy – which enables us to deliver value-for-money strategies. Our knowledge of project management is drawn from individuals with experience gained from management

of nuclear decommissioning projects, construction management, large development projects and involvement in international projects and consortia, as well as management of our own projects. That gives us a hugely effective capability.

“Likewise, in engineering design, REACT’s experience supporting a wide range of nuclear decommissioning projects across the UK provides a clear understanding of the complex matrix of hazards, constraints, risks and stakeholder requirements that can make delivering a decommissioning project very challenging. The team can therefore define the actual problems and develop creative solutions focused on addressing all critical factors that will affect the successful outcome of a project.”

Tuesday March 26 2013 | the times

14

Business Insight Focus Britainon Energ ’s y Coast

Offshore energy

No coasting for Morecambe Bay team with new reserves Other sources might abound but Centrica still turns on the gas

By Christopher Nelson

Building a career in the energy field

W

hen people talk about Britain’s Energy Coast, the focus is invariably on nuclear and renewables. However, the offshore oil and gas industry continues to have a substantial presence in the North West, generating the fuels which are still the primary source of heat and light for our homes and which keep UK transport on the move.

Centrica Energy is involved in offshore windfarm generation, and has also been connected with plans for new nuclear power plants, but gas remains at the core of its business, now and in the foreseeable future. The company has a long-standing connection with the Cumbrian energy industry. Since the 1980s, there has been strong gas production operating out of the southern tip of the peninsula – Barrow-in-Furness – and Centrica Energy recently announced the development of a new gas field which will safeguard 400 jobs in the local area and secure gas production beyond 2020.

The Rhyl gas field, located 25 miles off Barrow, will be the first new gas field in Morecambe Bay to come into production for over a decade. Centrica Energy has been making the final preparations to bring the field onstream in the coming weeks. The first gas from this field will represent the latest major step forward in Centrica Energy’s commitment to securing new energy supplies for the UK, as well as delivering investment to the Lancashire and Cumbria coastlines.

In addition, the first seismic review of the offshore gas field in over a decade is hoping to uncover more explo-

C Pleased with ‘another successful year’: Mike Astell ration opportunities off these coasts, securing gas for the UK and jobs for the local area.

“Centrica Energy has seen another busy year in the East Irish Sea,” says Mike Astell, regional director EIS – CEU (Centrica Energy Upstream), “where we have been carrying out the first development activity in over a decade. With Rhyl due to come onstream in the coming weeks, we are extending production from Morecambe Bay past 2020.

“At the same time, we are continuing to invest in our Barrow terminals. As we move into a new phase of operations in the East Irish Sea, we will continue to invest in people, demonstrating our commitment to local communities while ensuring our

business is equipped with the next generation of innovators, leaders and engineers.”

“People are at the heart of our business,” Mike Astell says. “From our graduates to our offshore installation managers, everyone has a role to play to ensure safe operations. This is UK gas, produced from a UK field using UK infrastructure, which will continue to play a significant role for the foreseeable future.

“The Cumbrian coast continues to offer a wealth of resources — and, with technology improving all the time, there is still everything to play for in the Morecambe Bay area. These are very exciting times for the business, for the people involved in it and for the communities it supports.”

entrica Energy has been operating in the North West for decades and is a key local employer at its East Irish Sea gas terminals, Morecambe Bay gas fields, Rampside terminal and windfarms. The company’s determination to invest in the skills of the local community is demonstrated through its apprentice schemes, as shown by the personal experiences of 21-year-old Natalie Robinson.

She was employed as a mechanical technician apprentice for 18 months and is currently a mechanical commissioning apprentice for the Rivers Replacement Project. “I really enjoy my current role” she says, “as it allows me to learn something new every day. I get the best of both worlds because I am learning the theory at college and get the practical experience on-site.

“Although apprenticeships follow a set structure, I have found that each apprentice can have their own personalised experience at Centrica Energy. For example, I joined a newbuild project on-site a couple of months into my second year and have been working on that ever since as a mechanical commissioning

team member, which has allowed me to take on real responsibility and demonstrate my strengths.”

Her day-to-day tasks include work permits, carrying out safety walks around the project area, system checks, daily toolbox talks and liaising directly with Centrica Energy’s management team on progress within the project, including upcoming activities. “My confidence is also growing all the time,” she says. “I am very proud of the fact that a year ago I would not have been able to speak in front of a large group of people, but now I find myself presenting toolbox talks in front of more than 65 men on-site every day without even thinking about it.

“The training I receive at Centrica Energy offers me a wide range of different career paths, which will create fantastic opportunities in the long term. When I look to the future, I see myself as a qualified chartered mechanical engineer focused on project development. I hope to have worked my way up the career ladder within the company and have a well-established role within Centrica Energy.”

Power with a future

The Morecambe field has been operating since 1985 and accounts for around 8 per cent of gas supply from the UK continental shelf.

Gas was expected to run out by the end of this decade. However, Centrica Energy is now looking at production well into 2020 and possibly even beyond.

The fields in the region are among the largest in the UK continental shelf in terms of remaining reserves.

During 2012, Centrica Energy’s upstream gas and oil profitability increased by 20 per cent, to £919 million. That profitability enables Centrica Energy to protect jobs by investing in the future of the business through infrastructure improvements and exploration, to discover and bring online more gas fields.

Centrica Energy added 170MMboe (million barrels of oil equivalent) gas reserves in 2012, as a result of

acquisitions, upgrades of existing hubs such as Rhyl in the East Irish Sea and bringing new projects into the development pipeline.

Centrica Energy’s assets in the region also provide a key hub for processing gas from other companies.

Looking forward, Centrica Energy plans to continue its investment in additional exploration opportunities to further extend the life of the East Irish Sea fields.

‘Learning something every day’: Natalie Robinson

the times | Tuesday March 26 2013

15

Business Insight Focus Britainon Energ ’s y Coast

Innovation

Underwater spy is the big star of new pond movie The remotely operated vehicles run by James Fisher are meeting high demand for clean-ups

By James Hardy

A

nyone who thinks that developing expertise in playing video games is a waste of time should speak to the people at James Fisher Nuclear Ltd, because the company has found that a gamer’s ability to control precise movements in a virtual world is a useful aid to piloting remotecontrol mini-submarines in the hazardous environment of nuclear storage ponds.

Of course the teams operating the mini-submarines, or remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) as they are more accurately described, must have a huge range of other skills and technical knowledge – but hands-on experience with video game controls is certainly a relevant talent.

The demand for the specialist expertise offered by James Fisher Nuclear can be judged from the fact that over the last two years its turnover has more than doubled – and new opportunities are emerging all the time. The company is part of the James Fisher shipping group, but has successfully moved into a significant number of other markets.

Ian Crabbe, nuclear general manager at James Fisher Nuclear, says that the range of services is driven by customer demand, and James Fisher has developed a reputation for taking that customer requirement and exceeding it in the most innovative ways.

Take the ROVs, for example. Since the early years of the UK nuclear industry, these clever devices have been playing a vital role in the exploration and decommissioning of the lagoons used for storage of everything from nuclear reactor fuel rods to miscellaneous waste. The facilities are now ageing and are the focus of a concentrated clean-up campaign. One of the largest is the First Generation Magnox Storage Pond on the Sellafield site, which holds some 14,000 cubic metres of contaminated water and 1,200 fuel skips.

The first phase of the operation was to update the detailed inventory of the pond, including the radioactive sludge accumulated over more than 50 years of operations. James Fisher Nuclear has developed an array of survey techniques, including digital cameras fixed to the ROVs and on booms, and these are able to see inside the skips within the ponds. They can also be equipped with various grabs, sludge samplers and cutting devices to carry out tasks carefully and very precisely.

The second phase uses ROVs to pick up fuel rods and consolidate fuel skips in preparation for the retrieval of fuel from the

pond. “Operators must understand what they are seeing through the camera images and how to handle and remove various materials as part of carefully regulated and planned operations,” says Ian Crabbe. “In nuclear terms, this is cutting-edge, and the skills that we have developed and continue to develop through our work at Sellafield and other UK sites are equally applicable for nuclear operations across the world.

What we and other contractors are doing at Sellafield is setting the standard for nuclear decommissioning and operating in hostile environments.”

Another example of a capability where James Fisher Nuclear has produced innovative solutions is in the provision of self-contained modular facilities, built and fully equipped off-site within steel containers. Projects range from specialist nuclear facilities for processing various types of intermediate level waste – including sludge from storage areas – through to offshore breathing air supply pods and portable shower and changing facilities. The beauty of the concept is that when the facility is no longer needed, it can be moved to another area of the site, or to an entirely different location.

The demand for James Fisher’s nuclear expertise even extended to the 2012 Olympics, where radiological detection equipment was widely deployed, with teams assembled and trained by the company as part of the security operation. Also, in association with Sellafield Ltd, the company has developed a range of powerful and versatile manipulator arms for deployment as part of the decommissioning activities.

Beyond the nuclear environment, James Fisher has developed sophisticated nondestructive testing and inspection services.

Applications include assisting companies in the detection of costly water leaks on the distribution infrastructure, and detecting and mapping corrosion in pipework, tanks and valves to enable more effective assessment and maintenance of customer assets in the water, oil, gas and processing sectors.

“Much of the added value for our clients comes from the experience and know-how of our personnel who are highly qualified and hugely experienced,” says Mr Crabbe.

“For example, the corrosion detection mapping requires a toolbox approach to select the best methods from the range at our disposal – and to be effective, technicians must also know how to interpret the results.”

The same is true of leak detection. Most of the leaks are not visible, so technicians must employ the correct skills and techniques for each location. Even a good ear can be an asset: some of the detection methods depend on the type of noise being made by the leak to precisely locate it.

Those noise indicators are as distinctive as fingerprints, so the process is half CSI and half Sherlock Holmes.

Operators must understand what they are seeing through the camera

Cutting-edge ROV: In service from Sellafield to far flung nuclear operations

Wide-ranging services

J

ames Fisher Nuclear Limited (JFN) is a wholly owned subsidiary of James Fisher and Sons plc, and specialises in supplying high-integrity services and equipment for use in adverse environmental conditions. JFN’s customers are typically engaged in operations to support highly regulated industries – spanning nuclear, aerospace, processing and defence.

The scope of the business includes:

Design and supply of highintegrity electro-mechanical handling and measurement equipment, instrumented test rigs, fixtures and mechanical handling systems, facility EC&I (electrical, control and instrumentation) and infrastructure control systems, and radiological instrumentation.

Operation of test, trials and simulation facilities.

Non-destructive testing services – in-house and on-site.

Accredited laboratory-based instrument calibration services, along with on-site instrument maintenance and calibration services.

As an equipment supplier, JFN delivers a comprehensive range of services to high-integrity industries as discrete, standalone packages, or in combinations from consultancy, design, analytical analysis (stress / mechanisms / thermal, etc) to peer review, build-to-print manufacture, and equipment refurbishment and upgrades.

JFN operates from six locations: Egremont, Malton, Worcester, Leyland, Sittingbourne and Queensferry/Deeside. The company’s Egremont site houses the Cumbrian workforce of nuclear engineers along with local design offices, service facilities and extensive rig hall facilities, all ideally placed to support Sellafield.

JFN has extensive practical experience in trialling and perfecting equipment in a rig hall situation, rehearsing and training operatives for work in a hostile environment, and practical development of innovative solutions.

The JFN manufacturing facility in Malton in Yorkshire produces high-precision machined and fabricated components and highly specialised equipment used in diverse applications from

The strong-arm squad nuclear to sub-sea. The design specialty at Malton lies in bespoke solutions for the nuclear industry.

The team has a long history of tackling high-risk design-andbuild projects and offers clients deep expertise in all aspects of machine development, including mechanical, hydraulic, electrical and systems engineering.

The JFN head office is located at Leyland in Lancashire, along with additional design facilities.

Deeside in Wales is the national centre for instrument calibration and maintenance, while Worcester, Sittingbourne (in Kent) and Queensferry all specialise in providing non-destructive testing.

Tuesday March 26 2013 | the times

16

Business Insight

Education

Focus Britainon Energ ’s y Coast

Science shows inspire engineers of the future A West Cumbria engineering firm fosters home-grown talent to feed its need for top technology

By James Hardy

E

ach year, the REACT Foundation, created by REACT Engineering, holds science and engineering shows which tour the West Cumbria area and constitute a joint effort between REACT and the outreach team at the National Science Museum.

In previous years the shows reached almost 4,000 year six to year nine pupils (10- to 13-year-olds) across Copeland and Allerdale. But for 2013, the scope of the shows has been extended to double the number of students involved – to more than 8,000, taking in year five though to year nine (nine- to 13-year-olds). The venue for the primary school children is the Lakes College at Lillyhall, where pupils are bussed in for the lively sessions. For older pupils, the show takes to the road to visit each of the secondary schools in the area.

The two main themes for 2013 are designed to appeal to the universal ghoulish curiosity of children, while also tuning into topics within the national curricu-

lum. So for the year five and year six pupils the Key Stage 2 topic is “Glorious Blood”, while for year seven to year nine pupils the Key Stage 3 topic is “Danger!

High Voltage!”

Glorious Blood takes a journey through the human body, enabling the children to discover what blood is, what it does and where it goes. Also what is in blood and what happens when you start to lose it.

It’s never too late to capture the imagination – with science-based scenes that shock and intrigue

Along the way, the energetic team members answer questions such as “Why does our heart beat faster when we exercise?” Particularly appropriate for Britain’s Energy Coast, Danger! High Voltage! features demonstrations – literally hair-raising – that make this show about electricity and magnetism a powerful and stimulating experience.

Irene McMillan at REACT Engineering says that co-ordinating the shows is her favourite part of the job, while pointing out that it is both a way of putting something back into the community and a method of getting REACT on to the radar of bright kids who could one day be their recruits. “It is never too early to capture the imagination of young people,” she says. “They have to choose whether they want to study science and technology, but too often they are not excited by it, or don’t understand the sorts of hugely rewarding careers that can be enjoyed through our business.

“The REACT Foundation was created to engage young people from primary school right through to university, but catching their attention early on is absolutely crucial – not just for this area but for the whole of the country. REACT funds a range of bursaries and science prizes to enhance the appeal of science and technology and help to encourage able students to pursue it as a career, but we decided it was worthwhile using some of our resources to excite thousands of young people about our world.”

Innovation programme that puts Cumbria top of the class

T

he launch last month of a new innovation and technology development programme was attended not just by business delegates, academics and industry specialists, but also by hundreds of local schoolchildren – who competed in technology challenges as part of the event. It was an appropriately innovative way of reaching out to young people for the launch of Innovus, which focuses on taking bright ideas in the field of technology and turning them into commercial successes.

Innovus is funded through Britain’s Energy Coast and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, and aims to encourage and support innovative technologies in Cumbria. It recognises that the successful commercialisation of innovations is reliant on connecting a “bright idea” with a “real need” in the

marketplace. Innovus aims to support this process by offering connections to market demand, access to worldclass facilities, funding, technical skills and business support through its key delivery partners: the University of Manchester and the National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL).

The Innovus launch at Energus in Lillyhall at Workington combined details of the how the programme will work with examples of how technology innovation can not only solve business problems but also help businesses to grow and diversify. Innovus in particular aims to encourage and support innovation among the young people of Cumbria, to ensure a longterm pipeline of talent and opportunity.

Running in parallel with the main conference, teams of local school pupils took part in the Innovus Chal-

lenge, competing to complete a series of 24 tough interactive challenges.

There was a rare opportunity for pupils to use cutting-edge technology such as the Brokk Simulator – which enabled them to construct a virtual building – and Aquaball, which employs underwater robotics.

“Innovus has evolved from a shared belief at the university and NNL that Cumbria has a unique research and development capability and the opportunity to use technology as a driver for significant economic growth,” says Kevin Warren, commercial director at the University of Manchester’s Dalton Nuclear Institute. “I was particularly pleased with the number of school and university students at the launch, as they will be the innovators of the future and will be able to access more high-tech opportunities in Cumbria as a result of Innovus.”

Some exercises inevitably involve a touch of drama

the times | Tuesday March 26 2013

17

Business Insight Focus Britainon Energ ’s y Coast

Technology

Bender is in the fast lane with Drayson Racing

B Ahead of the rest: Drayson uses Bender monitoring to protect its pioneering race cars

Safety first for circuit master Winning track record for a Cumbria-based team delivering top power performances

By James Hardy

B

ender UK is in the business of saving lives through its range of innovative solutions for safe handling of electrical power. It is a global technology leader in electrical safety and monitoring systems which identify faults before they become critical and thus protect systems from unscheduled shutdown or loss of power. The products emerging from Bender’s German research and manufacturing centres ensure the protection of people and the safe operation of machines, plants and systems around the world.

The products are tailored specifically to the needs of customers across a wide range of sectors, from power generation, processing, healthcare, rail and marine engineering, to electric cars, data-handling centres, solar power generation and sensitive manufacturing operations. Whenever absolute confidence and security for the supply and control of electrical power is required, there is a high probability that Bender products will be involved.

The life-saving role is particularly acute in the medical sector, where Bender is the leading manufacturer and supplier of isolated power supplies and control panels for surgeons, protecting power supplies to vital equipment used for life-support, diagnosis and treatment.

Through its UK partnership with Steris Surgical Products, a world leader in healthcare and operating theatre equipment, Bender now provides turnkey solutions for operating theatre and surgical care installations. The scope of supply includes Steris pendants, LED (light-emitting diode) surgical lighting and theatre integration systems, and third-party UPS (uninterruptible power supply) systems. All the equipment is supplied, commissioned and maintained post-installation by Bender’s round-theclock technical service department.

Last year, the Cumbria-based Bender UK team played their own winning role in ensuring the reliability and performance of generators across the Olympic Park at London 2012. Bender components protect complex systems on Royal Navy surface ships and the Astute-class submarines. They also ensure the electrical safety of a new generation of electric racing cars, and protect the integrity of the signalling systems that control Britain’s railways.

Bender UK is principally involved in the application, installation, service support and sales of the huge range of Bender equipment manufactured in Germany. Based at the Low Mill Business Park in Ulverston, the company currently employs 26 people – a figure set to rise to more than 30 by the middle of 2013 as expansion continues.

Managing director Steve Mason is proud of the worldwide reputation of the German parent company, but prouder still of the continuing growth of the UK operation, both in terms of orders and its own reputation for outstanding service and customer support.

He takes great pride in employing local people and developing their skills

and expertise to help the business grow year-on-year.

“There is a huge market for Bender products because of the vast range of electrical systems that cannot be allowed to fail or shut down – even for a few seconds,” he says. “Customers rely on our products to monitor the performance of their equipment, and to protect their isolated power supplies and UPSs, to warn them of potential faults or power leakages, and to help them plan maintenance and maximise the efficiency of their systems.

“Much of our equipment is designed to make customers aware of problems before they become critical, so that they can institute preventative maintenance – but we also manufacture equipment that provides a failsafe, to ensure that if one power source ceases to operate, it switches over so quickly to an alternative power source that the interruption is imperceptible. In medical installations, that performance can be the difference between life or death, and our teams are acutely aware of the responsibility they carry in supplying and maintaining Bender equipment and systems.

“Performance can be equally critical in sensitive manufacturing operations, power generation and management and processing sites – again, even a brief interruption of power supply can be disastrous. Our products are recognised as the leaders across a range of different markets, but part of the challenge for our business is to continue to develop our workforce and to educate new markets about the ways in which we can help to enhance safety and integrity of supply, and maximise the operational performance and availability of the systems we support.”

ender UK will be in the fast lane with Drayson Racing Technologies for the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile) Formula E championship, which features cars powered exclusively by renewable electric energy and racing on city street circuits.

Drayson Racing Technologies uses Bender insulation monitoring equipment to protect its pioneering lowcarbon electric racing cars from electrical faults and failure.

Bender also supplies electrical protection equipment to volume electric car manufacturers.

Next year, Drayson Racing will run the new Formula E customer racing car supplied by the promoter and currently being developed by Spark and McLaren. Then from 2015, the team plans to field a new drivetrain developed from the advanced DRT 4X2-640

electric system featured in the Lola-Drayson B12/69EV car that set a new electric record at last year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed.

“Working closely with Bender UK, DRT integrated its isolation monitoring system into the B12 drivetrain, using it as a key component in the safety case of the vehicle,” says Angus Lyon, chief engineer of drivetrain at Drayson Racing Technologies.

“Throughout this process, Bender UK and Germany provided invaluable support, allowing the quick and seamless integration of its products.”

Developing over 850 horsepower yet producing zero emissions, the car has been designed to demonstrate the potential of green technologies in the harsh environment of motorsport and is capable of reaching speeds of up to 200 miles per hour with an acceleration from 0 to 100mph in just 5.1 seconds.

Smart protection for rail signalling

B

ender UK has won a contract to deliver intelligent monitoring of signalling power supplies for Network Rail nationwide. The biggest single order ever won by Bender UK is for the supply of more than 400 devices to monitor and protect railway signalling electrical systems and equipment, enabling Network Rail to immediately identify the location of faults.

This allows maintenance teams to respond more rapidly, enhancing safety and reducing downtime on the network.

The Rail Signalling (RS3) integrated insulation monitoring and earth fault location equipment has been developed by Bender for Network

Bender team demonstrates the signal protection system Rail relay rooms and lineside locations. The system incorporates GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications)enabled data loggers equipped for real-time communication with the rail system’s intelligent infrastructure.

“Most people use our equipment so that they are immediately aware of faults or irregularities and therefore they can plan their intervention around their business needs,” says Steve Mason, managing director of Bender UK. “Bender systems delivering the same functionality are also available for other critical power installations in processing and other industrial locations – intelligent monitoring to deliver intelligent maintenance.

Tuesday March 26 2013 | the times

18

Business Insight

Engineering

Breaking up is hard to do, but it’s also constructive Westinghouse is well ahead of game in the quest for an efficient, safe nuclear clean-up

By Elizabeth Dunn

A

leader in the global nuclear marketplace, Westinghouse is working at the forefront of the UK nuclear industry to help secure sustainable energy supplies for future generations, while bringing state-of-the-art solutions to the challenging programme of decommissioning and clean-up work currently underway in Cumbria.

While it is an international force to be reckoned with, Westinghouse is also making the most of opportunities to “keep it local” in West Cumbria. Almost half of the nuclear power plants operating worldwide are based on Westinghouse technology, and now the company is harnessing its 50-year track record as an industry innovator to support West Cumbria’s complex decommissioning challenge.

Westinghouse, backed by extensive expertise gained in nuclear decommissioning programmes across the world – including at Hanford in the US, Fukushima in Japan and more locally at its Springfields facility in Lancashire – is leading a number of projects that will help accelerate the decommissioning and clean-up schedule at Sellafield.

These projects range from the support of decommissioning programmes through the delivery of “peer assist” workshops – addressing key technical challenges and identifying areas in which Westinghouse can bring its experience to speed up the decommissioning programmes within the legacy ponds and silos of the Sellafield site – to the detailed assessment of nuclear safety cases and the refurbishment of nuclear-rated

Construction of the AP1000 Nuclear Power Plant underway at Sanmen, China cranes used for moving active waste materials.

A partner in Cumbria Nuclear Solutions Ltd (CNSL), a consortium of highprofile businesses working together to deliver safe decommissioning and remediation services to the nuclear industry in West Cumbria, Westinghouse has clear ambitions to become a key player in the future development of the region’s nuclear industry.

CNSL is a preferred contractor for the four-year decommissioning framework agreement awarded by Sellafield Ltd in 2011. Two years into the contract, Westinghouse is delivering a range of innovative solutions for decommissioning, dismantling and waste management.

“We are proud to be providing services and support to the existing nuclear sites in the UK,” said Mike Tynan, chief

executive of Westinghouse UK, “and in particular, most recently, the decommissioning work in which we have been actively involved at Sellafield Ltd – bringing our global expertise to make a difference locally in West Cumbria.”

At Sellafield, Westinghouse is helping to address three key priorities. The first is to provide a comprehensive, safe waste retrieval and processing capability by bringing in tried and tested technologies. The second is to provide technical underpinning of this capability, while the third is to help reduce the overall duration of the decommissioning schedules.

On the practical side, working closely with their CNSL partners, Westinghouse engineers are leading a project to modernise vital pieces of equipment on the Sellafield site – including cranes

Photo courtesy Sanmen Nuclear Power Company Ltd. (Photographer: Madame Chen Yi)

We plan to be servicing the UK’s nuclear industry well into the next century

Focus Britainon Energ ’s y Coast

that lift waste containers in high-risk areas. The new installations for the cranes include state-of-the-art safety features, a remote control system that keeps the operator out of the cab and a laser-positioning tool that will enable the crane to move accurately over specific loads.

Taking on a growing advisory and development role, Westinghouse’s world-renowned experts in decommissioning services are working with Sellafield Ltd’s operational and engineering teams to identify ways to process specific wastes and accelerate the broader waste retrieval and processing programmes. Working with specialist Sellafield staff, Westinghouse has led high-level sessions to address issues that could arise during the retrieval of spent nuclear materials, and the company was able to demonstrate decommissioning processes recently used at Fukushima. The resulting studies will help guide the Sellafield Ltd approach to the handling, storage and processing of spent nuclear fuel and other waste streams.

“Westinghouse has already conducted laboratory experiments, theoretical studies and safety analyses with reactive materials for a wide variety of situations that are applicable to Sellafield Ltd,” Mike Tynan said, “and so we are well placed to be able to offer constructive advice based on our cumulative experience.”

As its decommissioning work in West Cumbria is expanding, Westinghouse is increasing its resource commitment to the area, further embedding the company in the fabric of the region. “We are a business that focuses on the long term and we have business plans for the UK that stretch out beyond 2030,” Mr Tynan said. “In fact, we plan to be servicing the UK nuclear industry well into the next century, and it is realistic to believe that we can achieve that goal.”

The right choice for the future, the right choice for Cumbria

T

hey say that big things often come in smaller packages, and that is certainly true of the Westinghouse AP1000® nuclear power plant. Global nuclear industry leader Westinghouse is convinced that the AP1000 reactor is the right choice for the UK – and, importantly, for Cumbria.

Its small physical footprint belies the fact that it is an advanced nuclear plant design considered by many to be the safest, most efficient and most reliable nuclear reactor design currently available in the global marketplace.

The AP1000 is a pressurised water reactor that uses the forces of nature and design simplicity to enhance plant safety and operations, and to reduce construction costs. With a power output of around 1,150MW – the equivalent of providing enough electricity to power all the homes in Cumbria and Lancashire – an AP1000 reactor is only around half the size of a conventional nuclear power station with the same output. And it is the only Generation III+ reactor technology with design certification from US regulators.

Westinghouse worked closely with NuGen – which is developing the Moorside

project in West Cumbria – on generic design approval for the AP1000 reactor, through the Office for Nuclear Regulation’s (ONR) assessment process. In December 2011, the AP1000 was awarded interim design acceptance confirmations from both the ONR and the Environment Agency.

“Westinghouse continues to be interested in bringing AP1000 technology to the UK,” said Mike Tynan, the Westinghouse UK chief executive, “and we are exploring options for how our ambitions here can be realised. We are certain that for the UK to become energy-independent and carbon-

free, nuclear energy is an essential element of future energy provision.

“Securing reliable energy sources for future generations in the UK clearly presents major business opportunities for Westinghouse, and we strongly believe that our ‘Buy where we build’ strategy can deliver significant value to the UK, and to Cumbria in particular.

“Choosing AP1000 technology would bring thousands of well-paid jobs to the area, and we are committed to utilising local supply chain where quality, safety and cost considerations can be met.”

the times | Tuesday March 26 2013

19

Business Insight Focus Britainon Energ ’s y Coast

Decommissioning

Muscular trio shifts the legacy The long experience of Sellafield workers is another big factor in decommissioning under NMP umbrella

by Elizabeth Dunn

A

powerful consortium is bringing together world-class management and state-of-the-art technology to complement the huge strengths of the Sellafield workforce as it deals with the largest nuclear clean-up project in Europe.

There are 170 major facilities to decommission, including four high-hazard ones and four reactors.

Who are these key players? Since 2008, Nuclear Management Partners (NMP) has owned Sellafield Ltd and – to manage this unique site with the most diverse portfolio of any nuclear facility in the world – it combines the global nu-

NMP good cause: Local ‘Seafest’ clear experience of the British company AMEC, the US company URS and the French firm Areva.

Working closely with Sellafield Ltd under the close scrutiny of the UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), NMP produced the first underpinned lifetime plan for Sellafield, detailing a forward programme of operations, construction projects and decommissioning.

There has been progress in dealing with the complex task of decommissioning, but there is further to go. NMP is committed to delivering value for the UK taxpayer at the same time as delivering on safety.

NMP’s main focus is the safe and secure operation of Sellafield, and it has been working hard to constantly raise standards. It has, for example, been raising levels of training and qualification of the Sellafield workforce, while introducing best practice from nuclear facilities around the world, including those of the parent companies in France and the US. The Sellafield site has technically complex and challenging projects. Dealing with these has not been easy, and much has been learned, but NMP has started to make progress in reducing the hazards on the site. The final decommissioning of the Windscale Advanced Gas-Cooled Reactor (WAGR) has been completed, making this the first UK reactor to be decommissioned.

Generally, throughput of spent fuel at Sellafield’s Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (THORP) and at Magnox reprocessing plants has been increasing, and NMP is working to achieve a more consistent performance. The first batch of spent fuel has been removed from the Calder Hall reactors, ahead of schedule.

There has been successful repatriation of overseas-owned waste to country of origin, as outlined under the NDA plan: 104 containers have been safely returned to Japan and 28 to the Netherlands.

NMP is on track to deliver some £800 million of efficiencies during the first five years of the contract. Sellafield pays over £500m in wages each year, and around one-third of the £900m of Sellafield contracts awarded in 201011 was retained in West Cumbria. Staff numbers are expected to reach close to 11,000 by the end of the year, making Sellafield one of the largest single-site employers in the UK. NMP general manager Graham McKendry points to the partnership between the skills of the NMP companies – driving through strategy and change management – and those of the Sellafield workforce. “We are doing more work than ever before – £1.7 billion last year versus £1.2bn before we took over,” he says. “We are also recruiting over 600 people. Everyone has a right to feel proud at what has been achieved. We have come a long way since 2008, but we recognise that there are some massive challenges ahead.

“It is vital that we maintain our focus on safety. There are lessons to be learned in our delivery of major projects, and we are striving to further develop our plans for the mission to safely deliver on legacy ponds and silos. These are old and complex facilities, but we are successfully developing innovative techniques to deal with them. We are working with our customer to identify

The Sellafield site presents technically complex and challenging problems

These are old and complex facilities but we are developing innovative techniques to deal with them

and tackle these challenges and we are seeing real progress. Together we are making Sellafield safer, cleaner, more productive, more cost-effective and a better neighbour each and every day.”

By combining the expertise of its three global companies, NMP is able to manage all aspects of the Sellafield portfolio, from cleaning the contaminated buildings and operating waste and production plants, through to project management and newbuild construction – generating billions of pounds of economic and employment benefits for Cumbria and the surrounding area.

NMP is focused on making Sellafield as safe and as efficient as possible, while providing the best value for all stakeholders, as it continues to develop the plan for managing the most hazardous site in the UK. “Safely managing the most complex nuclear site in the world demands a unique combination of skills,” says NMP chairman Tom Zarges. “NMP is the tailor-made solution to that challenge.

Together with Sellafield Ltd, we are safely delivering the NDA’s mission of accelerated clean-up at Sellafield.

“Delivering this work in partnership with the highly skilled Sellafield workforce, supply chain and stakeholders is fundamental to our approach as we take Sellafield through the next stage of its journey of environmental restoration.”

When NMP assumed ownership of the site in November 2008 there were, as Graham McKendry points out, huge issues to be faced. “The facilities present-ed the largest risk to workers, public and environment across the entire NDA estate. Other serious issues across the site included unsatisfactory plant reliability and performance, project delivery and safety performance. We knew we faced huge challenges, but we also know that, with the skills and expertise of the Sellafield workforce, we could meet them head-on.”

Around 150 highly experienced managers with decades of experience were brought in by NMP, to mentor and learn from the Sellafield workforce. This partnership soon began to taste success.

“What NMP brings to Sellafield is a global network of nuclear experts who

complement the highly skilled and experienced Sellafield workforce,” says Todd Wright, the NMP-seconded managing director of Sellafield Ltd. “Together we are challenging the norm, exploring new solutions and approaches to work and safely accelerating the rate at which we deliver to our customer, the NDA.” And it is not just on-site where NMP is making a difference. The company has committed up to £22.5m over the first five years of its contract to help deliver a vibrant economy for West Cumbria.

NMP good cause: Inshore lifeboat

“Socio-economic commitment is not just about donating money,” says Gary McKeating, head of socio-economics for NMP. “It’s about making a difference. NMP is committed to making a difference in West Cumbria, just as our individual parent companies have made a difference to communities around the world.

“The opportunities for the West Cumbria economy are potentially transformational, and NMP will continue to partner with community leaders to help turn these opportunities into reality.

Working through Britain’s Energy Coast, with our community leaders and utilising our parent company experience, NMP is focusing on collective aims to energise West Cumbria and transform it into an international centre of excellence supporting the nuclear and energy industries.”

Acting Locally,

Thinking GloballyTM

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West Cumbria is poised to deliver over 3,000 new jobs in the next 15 years by capitalising on a potential £90 billion worth of investment in the nuclear industry and seizing new opportunities in renewable technologies. Britain’s Energy Coast is a dynamic one-stop-shop for economic development charged with helping West Cumbria realise its potential.

We offer a wide range of business support activities and funding packages for home-grown businesses and inward investors.

We fund physical and skills related regeneration projects and manage a high-quality business property services including the Westlakes Science & Technology Park. Our aim is to create an entrepreneurial environment where businesses can grow; helping to stimulate wealth and jobs that directly benefit the West Cumbrian community and aid Britain’s response to the pressing challenges of climate change and energy security.

We are truly Acting Locally, Thinking Globally™ For more information on our work visit www.britainsenergycoast.co.uk BUSINESS SUPPORT & PROJECTS

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