NIA Response to Energy Security and Net Zero Committee’s ‘Revisiting the Nuclear Roadmap’ Inquiry

The NIA is the trade association and representative body for the civil nuclear industry in the UK. We represent more than 300 companies operating across all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle, including the current and prospective operators of nuclear power stations, international designers, and vendors of nuclear power stations, and those engaged in decommissioning, waste management and nuclear liabilities management.

Executive Summary

Nuclear energy is ideally placed to help deliver the Government’s goals of economic growth, energy security, and net zero. Nuclear is the most powerful energy source on Earth by far, provides clean, reliable power, and generates well-paid, long-term jobs in the communities that need them most. UN analysis has shown that nuclear has clean energy source with the lowest land use, lowest ecosystem impact and the lowest lifecycle carbon of all generating technologies at 5.1-6,4g CO2/kWh.1 Currently, the sector sustains close to 90,000 jobs in the UK, generating at least £6.1 billion in GDP and at least £4.5 billion in tax revenues for the Exchequer each year.2 Nuclear power plants protect consumers from price fluctuations in international energy markets, and limit grid balancing costs by providing stable, domestically produced baseload power to the grid. This unique contribution of attributes makes nuclear essential to the success of the UK’s energy transition.

The principal hesitation about nuclear is undoubtedly whether or not new power stations can be built within reasonable budgets and timescales. The answer is that the UK must apply the model proven to work from international experience to cut build times and costs.

Click here to view our response.

Further Information

The NIA is happy to provide more context, or any clarifications desired on the content of our response and to ask our members where appropriate for additional information that may be
useful.

Please contact Elisabeth Roden, Policy Analyst for the Nuclear Industry Association, at [email protected] to do this.