Gloucestershire is now on the brink of a giant step forward in developing new nuclear energy with the potential of thousands of skilled jobs and millions of pounds flowing into the regional economy.
In an exclusive question and answer interview, the Chair of the Government’s arm’s length body, Great British Nuclear, Simon Bowen, talks for the first time how Oldbury and Berkeley hold the key to becoming a major part of the South West Regional nuclear hub.
Land next to the two decommissioned former nuclear sites at Oldbury and Berkeley Green will now be the sites for nuclear development.
*How exciting is the return of the region as a new nuclear hub?
SB: “This region has such a rich nuclear history that I think it is enormously exciting.
“I think there is a massive opportunity now with us purchasing Oldbury, with the separate Berkeley project nearby, and all the work that Western Gateway has done with the Severn Edge project.
“I think there is huge potential and when you couple that with the scale of the skills and capability that exists within the South West region, I think for nuclear developments it is immensely exciting.
“Nuclear is well accepted in the region. What people really like about it is the quality of the jobs-the jobs are very high quality and between the centre at Barnwood, the new centre for engineering at Aztec West for EDF and all the work in defence in Abbey Wood, the rich potential of Berkeley, and Oldbury as a prospective GBN development site.
“People talk about the North West as being the home of nuclear in the UK—you could argue whether it is the North West or the South West.
“One of the things I looked at when I went to Berkeley recently was the link with the University Technical College-the UTC-the link with GCHQ in Cheltenham. That is a model of what can be done.”
*Can you explain the potential link between Berkeley and Oldbury and how it will work with the siting of the new SMRs?
SB: “All of this is still very much in the planning stage. I have made no secret of the fact that I think Oldbury is an absolute prime site for SMRs.
“How much will it pan out? It is a site that might cope with four, five or six SMRs. This is power generation at scale.
“If you focus Oldbury very much on power generation then all the requirements for skills development and innovation you can naturally see a link with Berkeley, which is planned to be developed by others.
“Because of the proximity with Berkeley and Oldbury you could see the potential of doing a private wire to transmit power between Oldbury and Berkeley.
“So, you can see a bit of a hub for power for both power generation but also for nuclear activity between the two sites.”
*When will we get the result of the government’s SMR technology selection process?
SB: “The current timescale is Spring—I can’t go any further than that. We have got a quite a way to go in our negotiations with the prospective SMR vendors.
“We are just going flat out to make sure it is a rigorous, fair and transparent process.
“There are four prospective SMR vendor companies:, GE-Hitachi, Holtec, Rolls-Royce SMR, and Westinghouse.
“They are all credible technology providers, who could offer very substantial supply chain content and utilisation.
“No matter which are successful the UK will not only benefit from a huge amount of GDP but with real potential as a base for export. We will end up with a substantial enhance to GDP and skills no matter who is successful.”
*And when do you expect to be able to tell us about the plans for siting the SMRs at Oldbury?
SB: “Oldbury is one of our sites – Berkeley is a potential development site that CVG has now bought. It is likely to be a fast follower-it all bodes very well for the region.
“We are on track to announce which SMR vendors have been successful in the spring – so watch out for news after that.”
*Education and skills are vital for this new technology-what is the implementation plan?
SB: “Not in any detail yet. But if you were to follow the model used at Hinkley Point C that could show a way ahead.
“It is a model that has also been followed at Sizewell—multi-faceted, multi-certified. It will build on the National College for Nuclear that has been built further south in Bridgewater. There will be graduates and apprenticeships with higher apprenticeships as well. The Nuclear Skills Task Force is forming this Southwest Hub and that will start to marshal the capabilities that are required and pull the implementation plan together.
“Through Destination Nuclear, we are seeing all the major employers coming together to recruit into the market rather than just compete against each other.”
“A skills hub around the South West is being launched and the UTC at Berkeley is a great model for apprenticeships and higher apprenticeships. We will need many hundreds and thousands to be part of that.”
*Who will be responsible for funding this training and what is the timescale of the training programme?
SB:“The funding will be a combination of private sector and public sector. Already, the Nuclear Skills Task Force has set an objective and an imperative to quadruple the number of PhDs and double the number of graduates and double the number of apprentices.
“Government departments including the Ministry of Defence, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero are funding part of that, in partnership with the Department of Education. There will also be a responsibility on the companies involved, like GBN. We are starting to pump-prime the education system for that, but there will be a point in the months ahead when GBN has appointed both the SMR vendors, and the delivery partners when you’ll see recruitment start to really ramp up.
“You could see that through the second half of next year and into 2026-27 that’s when the ramp up will be really significant.
“Then when we get to final investment decisions around 2029 you can see the construction work will start. So, some of the site works or associated development like any new road will not open until the end of the decade.
“Within a year, I think we are going to see substantial increases in the number of people engaged.
“Berkeley is unlikely to be the only training centre that will be needed because of the size and the skills and the capability needed in terms of local provision as we have seen with Bridgewater College for Hinkley Point C, that is crucial.
“A lot of the apprentice-based skills and then training of people, who have come from different industries is bound to happen in the local area. Berkeley is so well positioned for that.
“But the outline programme says that you do some of the pre-works through the latter half of this decade until the final investment decision-the big Go or No Go-when you have got your private investment agreed and all the regulatory approvals. That is currently about 2029 and the SMRs would be going online during the mid 2030s. It will be around five years to the Go and then five years of construction.”
*Why so long?
SB: “These are the first-of-a-kind units. I think they are going to get quicker and quicker because you’ll have the factory facilities developed fully during the first one. That factory should then be capable of churning out the next reactors.
“You could see a world where you could put one online every three years and then every two years, then possibly every year”.
“The size of the SMRs themselves is between three to six football pitches.
“The Government has made a pledge to decarbonise the grid by 2030, with net zero by 2050. But Hinkley Point will be the first new nuclear development for 20 years. Naturally the Secretary of State’s focus is on achieving energy security, and delivering the de-carbonisation agenda. Having said that he is very pro-nuclear.
*Do think government is sold on nuclear?
SB: “Yes I do. We made an estimate that to take us out to 24 gigawatts—the previous government’s target-was programme of many many billions of pounds.
“The benefit of the SMRs is that once you can prove you can build them on time and budget, they are inherently privately financeable.”
*** What might be the investment be here in Gloucestershire from now?
SB:“It is going to be measured in tens of billions. The scale of what you are talking about with SMRs –no matter which way you cut it- between Government and private investors, you are going to end up spending tens of billions. Those numbers are credible numbers but you are putting infrastructure in place which will last for 60-80 years and possibly longer.
“People smart at the costs of nuclear but the true cost of nuclear is competitive when you compare it with things like offshore wind and a lot of the new technologies. These are long term investments and they are eyewatering numbers but the economics work.
“Oldbury has a history of nuclear power with loads of space and it is ripe for the development of SMRs. Berkeley is a different site like a business park but it could have space to build nuclear reactors too—it is a great place for innovation and research. So, the two of them are complementary.
“Berkeley is likely to have power in the longer term but it is much more likely to be a science park rather than Oldbury which will be purely a power station
“I would hope that the South West could be the nuclear hub of the UK in the future.
“In big handfuls, the construction workforce will be many thousands overall. There will be many thousands of people involved on the construction at Oldbury particularly.
“There will be thousands of skilled jobs-at a wild guess 5-6,000 involved directly and indirectly, and in the operating phase many hundreds of jobs. Those will be a combination of apprentices, graduate, and PhD roles as operators and engineers.
“The things that keep me awake at night is how on earth we recruit those numbers of people into the area.”
-Ian Mean MBE is a member of Gloucestershire County Council’s Economic Growth Board, a former vice-chair of GFirst LEP and former editor of the Western Daily Press
