Nuclear powerThe north of England can become the world’s nuclear base

The North of England has the opportunity to become one of the world’s leading nuclear manufacturing hubs, creating many thousands of new jobs and generating substantial economic growth for the United Kingdom, according to a University of Manchester report.

Commissioned by the Dalton Nuclear Institute, a U.K. academic nuclear research center, the report highlights the opportunity for the government to invest in the potential of the region to meet the demands of the U.K.’s nuclear new construction and use this as a springboard for providing goods and services to the £300 billion global nuclear sector.

A University of Manchester release reports that the report, recently completed for the Northern Way Development Agency, provides an assessment of how Northern England, with its established nuclear experience in heavy component manufacturing, consultancy and maintenance services, operation and research and development, is well positioned to capitalize on civil nuclear new build.

Already a major player in the nuclear supply chain with more than 50 percent of the U.K.’s nuclear workforce, the north also contains the U.K.’s full fuel cycle capability, uranium conversion and enrichment, fuel fabrication, generation, spent fuel reprocessing, waste treatment and storage, and decommissioning.

The release notes that the global market for new nuclear construction is estimated at more than £800 billion over the next twenty to thirty years. The U.K. new nuclear construction program is estimated at £40 billion, with the demand potential to support the rebalancing of the U.K. economy.

The report claims investment in the North of England would create at least 10,000 new jobs and secure many others in manufacturing and other professional services at a time when there are cut backs in other sectors.  Many of the skills in sectors such as aerospace and oil and gas could complement the nuclear skills already available and pump billions of pounds into the UK economy.

Headlines from the report include:

• Business opportunities in the United Kingdom from civil nuclear new build are high.
• Many new job opportunities in the building, manufacturing, and service sectors are possible with the right leadership and investment.
• Northern England has substantial nuclear capability and is well positioned to realize the opportunities.
• Government needs to adopt a policy that will realize an effective supply chain within the next eighteen months and should mobilize agencies and trade bodies to coordinate action across U.K. industry.

The existing world supply chains of the largest components, such as pressure vessels, lack resilience, with supply concentrated across two main players — France and Japan. With the right level of investment this presents an opportunity for the United Kingdom, the report claims.

The report argues that strategic leadership and coordination are both needed to exploit the commercial opportunities and calls for a “Nuclear Cluster” to be formed in the north in the same way that has proved successful in developing collaborative networks of companies in the process industries and in aerospace .

As the study coincided with the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan in March, the authors felt it was important to incorporate the key findings from the catastrophic event to show how they may impinge upon this global nuclear renaissance and hence the potential impact they may have with respect to the U.K.’s own nuclear construction program. 

Despite the repercussions from Fukushima, the nuclear new-construction renaissance continues in countries such as China, India, and the United Kingdom with sixty reactors under construction, 155 planned, and a further 338 proposed.

Nuclear energy is being backed in many countries to provide low carbon energy solutions, energy independence, security of supply, and protection against price volatility from fossil fuels.

The report claims it represents a significant business opportunity, but the lack of any U.K. new reactor construction over the last two decades means the nuclear absorptive capability is not as strong as it used to be.

The authors argue that the U.K. nuclear supply chain needs to be developed within the next eighteen months, so that companies are in a position to compete and win business at the start of the U.K. new construction program.

Professor Peter Storey said: “The U.K. government and nuclear industry are faced with a choice — to do nothing and possibly watch the U.K. nuclear supply chain lose business and economic growth opportunities to overseas- based firms, or to develop a national policy to coordinate the development of U.K. nuclear supply chain and position U.K. based businesses for economic growth in the U.K. and overseas markets.

“This report makes it clear that commercial opportunities do exist. With a national policy that is coordinated with the nuclear industry, these opportunities can be realized.”