UK's nuclear industry has global role to play
05 April 2016
The UK's nuclear supply chain needs to speak to a wider audience about its achievements and be ready to welcome professionals from other sectors into the new build fold, writes Tom Greatrex.
My experience as a member of the UK Parliament taught me that people will come to you with what they consider to be the single answer to the energy and climate change challenges the world faces. I think without exception this silver bullet approach is very limited in its application and scope.
The reality is, we need a range of different energy sources as each brings strong advantages. Nuclear is no different from any other in that regard.
The task is how best to optimise the range of different technologies, to understand how energy is used, how it's stored, how it's conserved; and technological developments will move that debate along. But without nuclear as the main low-carbon baseload source of electricity, I don't think there's anybody who seriously thinks we are in a position to achieve those wider aims.
"It's vitally important the message about a broad energy mix which includes nuclear new build is reinforced."
UK policy has been pretty consistent in supporting nuclear, but there is always a temptation for politicians and sometimes governments to latch on to the latest simplistic catch-all answer to every energy problem.
In the recent past there has been a lot of debate, for example, about the potential exploitation of unconventional gas in the UK and some rather simplistic extrapolations from the US experience to suggest this is a source of cheap gas for the future. There hasn't been any exploration in the UK and until there has been, you can have a theoretical understanding about what the reserves are, but you won't know what's recoverable from those reserves.
Similarly, there is a tendency amongst some people to see small modular reactors as an alternative to the new nuclear program in the UK. I don't think it is an alternative or a Plan B. It's a subsequent stage which has the potential to complement the existing new build pipeline.
Now I'm in a role where I'm speaking on behalf of, with and for an industry, I believe it's vitally important the message about a broad energy mix which includes nuclear new build is reinforced.
The challenge for the nuclear industry is to be confident about making its case, not to propagandise, but to provide people with scientifically based facts and evidence to enable a sound judgement on nuclear power. The industry needs to be able to satisfy people that what is good in concept is also going to be effective in terms of delivery.
The UK supply chain is there in terms of decommissioning, but in terms of new build it has been dormant for a generation effectively. But that doesn't mean the capability doesn't exist or that a record can't be built up. It's something which the Nuclear Industry Association is particularly focused on, ensuring that as projects move through the stages of development, the opportunities there for the UK supply chain and manufacturing and services are realised.
The nuclear industry is used to talking to itself and amongst itself about its achievements, developments and advances, but we need to be more comfortable about talking to a wider, more public audience about those things as well.
There are huge potential opportunities in the supply chain for companies currently outside the nuclear industry. For example, there are a lot of skills in the oil and gas sectors, because of both the mature nature of most of the UK continental shelf and the impact of current wholesale oil prices. There are some challenging times for a whole range of companies that have been used to servicing the North Sea and the UK oil and gas industry, whose abilities and expertise are, if not necessarily directly applicable, could with a bit of adjustment be applicable to the nuclear industry as well. We need to be alive to that possibility, to help people understand where those opportunities might be.
The Fit for Nuclear program is helping companies understand what it is they need to do to maximise the chance of winning contracts associated with nuclear, both in decommissioning and new build. I believe there's more scope for companies involved in oil and gas services at the moment which may be looking at how they can diversify in order for their business to survive. Nuclear represents one opportunity to be able to do that.
The UK is a place that sees nuclear as part of the future and part of the answer, not a technology of the past or a problem to be dealt with. Nuclear isn't the enemy of other technologies. It's about the optimal mix of a range of different technologies that will enable us to have a secure and clean energy future.
As an industry we are part of the solution to the pressing issues that countries around the world face. This should provide confidence and leadership about how the UK moves from having a nuclear estate which is quite old to having new nuclear as part of that mix.
I believe that as we have new build activity in the UK, as we get towards knowing when that will be added to our generation mix, then the expertise and capability that exists in the UK supply chain will be enhanced to a level where we are truly part of a global nuclear industry, where we are able to support the know-how and expertise in other countries. Within five years there can be quite significant progress along that pathway. When you think about the likely contracting processes for the new build projects, then, by that stage, we will be well advanced from where we are now. There is much to be positive about.
Tom Greatrex
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Formerly the Labour MP for Rutherglen and Hamilton West and shadow energy minister in the last Parliament, Tom Greatrex has been chief executive of the UK's Nuclear Industry Association since February.