What’s next for nuclear in the North?

Against a backdrop of big news for nuclear energy, the Manchester office of SEC Newgate this week convened a panel of leading industry experts to ask: what’s next for nuclear in the North?

Recent government announcements include confirmation that the UK’s first small modular reactors (SMRs) will be built at the site of Anglesey’s former Wylfa nuclear power station, with more flexibility in the location for further nuclear energy plants across the country.

Hosted by the University of Manchester, birthplace of nuclear physics, the event enabled a timely discussion about the opportunities and challenges ahead.

Panellist Rachel Westray, communications lead at Westinghouse Electric, said it was more a case of “what isn’t next for nuclear in the North?”. By that she meant the wealth of opportunities presented: for skills, employment, energy security, investment, technology, and upward mobility for northern communities. 

Indeed, it’s estimated that the sector now needs to recruit as many as 120,000 people, with as many as five supply chain jobs created for every role directly in the sector.

Mo Isap, Chair of the Lancashire Business Board, said more flexibility in deploying nuclear energy generation provides an opportunity to lift communities out of deprivation, creating career opportunities for people in areas where they don’t currently exist.

Jeremy Stain, Nuclear Director at Arup, an advisor to government on nuclear policy reform, said the UK was “on the cusp of something new”. “We are on a journey which begins with government intervention,” he said. Government then needs “to get out of the way” and allow the private sector to invest.

However, insight developed by the Research team at SEC Newgate and launched at the event – The Nuclear Divide - suggests that negative sentiment towards nuclear power could stall the government’s ambitions for UK energy security and net zero.

In a nationally representative survey of 2,000 people in the UK and Northern Ireland, only half of respondents (51%) said they feel positively about nuclear as a low carbon energy source - figures that are significantly lower than for solar (83%), wind (79%) and tidal (70%).

In fact, a quarter of the UK public actively feel negatively towards nuclear energy.

SEC Newgate’s research shows that a significant proportion of the UK public remains unconvinced and that more education to tackle anxieties and misinformation will be necessary if communities are to become more accepting of nuclear energy generation where they live. 

On a more positive note, SEC Newgate’s research shows that some people are more open to deployment of SMRs than they are to traditional nuclear power stations, demonstrating that people do understand the potential benefits. These include employment opportunities.

This has a clear implication for engagement: that any communications efforts should be tailored to different audiences.

Stephen Walls, former Deputy Director, Planning & External Affairs, Nuclear New Build, EDF Energy, said individual nuclear energy projects will drive a change in public perception. In Somerset, for example there is next to no unemployment thanks to the many thousands of secure jobs that have been created at Hinkley Point C.

Professor Adrian Bull, representing the Dalton Nuclear Institute at the University of Manchester, said people working in the nuclear industry now to be ambassadors for the sector, helping to build trust and acceptance for a new era of nuclear energy. 

• Energy Voice was SEC Newgate’s media partner for What’s next for nuclear in the North? The panel session was chaired by North West correspondent Floyd March, whose coverage (paywall) is here.