Taskforce calls UK the priciest place on Earth to build nuclear projects and urges radical regulatory reset
The UK is following the US in seeking to fast-track new atomic development, spurred on by the need to provide enough energy for its AI ambitions plus the increasing electrification of industry and vehicles.
A report published Monday by the government's Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce claims that the UK is now the most expensive place in the world to deliver nuclear projects and calls for a "radical reset" of nuclear regulations, essentially blaming red tape for the decline in Britain's atomic industry over the past several decades.
The report recommends "streamlining regulation" to avoid "overly bureaucratic, costly processes," but claims this can all be done while improving safety standards.
John Fingleton, former boss of the Office of Fair Trading who also sits on the board for UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), is leader of the taskforce. He says in the report that there are fundamental regulatory drivers of high cost and delay, and cites risk aversion; a prioritization of processes over outcomes; and the lack of incentives to maximize the benefits to society.
The document outlines 47 recommendations for the government, which come under five general areas: providing clearer leadership and direction for the nuclear sector; simplifying the regulatory approval process for atomic projects; reducing risk aversion; addressing incentives to delay progress; and working with the nuclear sector to speed delivery and boost innovation.
Among the recommendations is that a Commission for Nuclear Regulation should be established, becoming a "unified decision maker" across all other regulators, planners, and approval bodies.
The report also talks of reforming environmental and planning regimes to speed approvals, echoing the government's earlier decisions to streamline the planning process to make it easier for datacenter projects to get built.
It recommends amending the cost cap for judicial reviews and limiting legal challenges to Nationally Strategic Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs), while indemnifying nuclear developers against any damages they might incur as a result of proceeding with their project while a judicial review is still being decided.
Another recommendation that may be cause for concern is that the government should modify the Habitats Regulations to reduce costs. These are rules created to protect the most important and vulnerable natural sites and wildlife species across the UK.
The report also states that radiation limits for workers are overly conservative and well below what could be appropriately considered "broadly acceptable," claiming that they are many times less than what the average person in the UK normally receives in a year.
Other countries are seeking to smooth the way for more nuclear capacity to be added post-haste, the report notes. This includes the US, where the White House ordered the reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission earlier this year, and France, which has enacted the Nuclear Acceleration Act to simplify permitting and speed up the construction of new reactors.
The UK will need extra energy to power an uptick in datacenter construction as part of its AI Opportunities Action Plan detailed at the start of this year. Even before this plan was announced, the National Grid chief was warning that bit barn power consumption is on track to grow 500 percent over the next decade.
But those datacenters are being built now, while nuclear facilities can take up to a decade to construct and bring online, and it's hard to see how slashing regulations is going to cut down that timeline by much.
It was announced this month that the UK will build its first nuclear plant powered by small modular reactors (SMRs), for example, but this won't be generating power until the mid-2030s.
It seems likely that datacenters are going to be mostly powered by electricity generated by a mix of gas turbines plus renewable energy from wind and solar until new atomic sources can be built.
The Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce claims that the UK stands at a critical juncture. "Once a global leader in nuclear energy, it is now the most expensive country in the world to deliver nuclear projects," it says. "Existing power stations are approaching the end of their lives, while replacements are delayed and over budget.
"To meet the UK's growing energy demands, to drive down carbon emissions, and to sustain our strategic nuclear deterrent, along with the high-value jobs and economic growth these will bring, the sector needs an urgent transformational reset." ®