NUCLEAR NEW BUILD | A SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP
Franco-British nuclear collaboration
France and the UK stand alone in Western Europe with the scope of their highly ambitious civil nuclear programmes. If these goals are to be achieved the special relationship between these two nations will be critical to developing the skills necessary
ON FRIDAY 10 MARCH 2023, the first Franco-British Bilateral Summit in five years took place in Paris. This event served as a timely reminder that our two countries have an enduring partnership in many key areas and a desire to see this continue, particularly on the vital matters of energy security and climate change. At the summit, a dedicated seminar on nuclear saw the
Simon Barber
UK Managing Director, Assystem
UK’s Energy and Net Zero Secretary of State Grant Schapps sign a memorandum on cooperation in civil nuclear with his French counterpart Agnès Pannier-Runacher. This relationship will be critical to the realisation of both countries’ civil nuclear programmes, which are highly ambitious. The UK is aiming to build 24 GW of nuclear capacity by 2050, while France intends to deploy up to 14 new reactors over the same period, developing an upgraded version of its EPR technology in the process. In Western Europe, these two countries stand alone
in having large-scale new build programmes. And, with Chinese expertise being frozen out of the pipeline due to
geopolitical tensions, nurturing the capability and capacity to deliver new nuclear between Britain and France is imperative.
Skills mobility A chronic shortage of skills in the nuclear sector presents a substantial risk to both countries’ civil nuclear ambitions, and success will ultimately hinge on the development and expansion of a shared pool of talent and resources. Currently, companies like EDF and Assystem are bringing French expertise to UK nuclear projects, facilitating knowledge transfer with a view to establishing a sovereign domestic skills-base. This is working well for Hinkley Point C (HPC) and
Sizewell C but will need to be significantly scaled-up for future projects. Why? France alone will need to recruit an estimated additional 100,000 people to work on EPR2 – approximately 10,000 skilled individuals will need to join the industry every year to meet the development and deployment demands of this exciting new technology. The UK’s skills demand will also be significant. The UK and France must work together to ensure the
supply-chain is in the best possible shape to deliver. This means addressing the issue of international skills mobility. Building a nuclear fleet requires specialist capabilities and Brexit has taken away our ability to swiftly bring in experts who possess limited, in-demand skills in critical areas such as engineering, digital, and project management. Bringing in knowledge from France will reinforce the development of a sovereign capability in the UK. There is a short window, between now and 2027, where we can tap into French expertise – Assystem has been doing this by embedding experienced French nuclear engineers into UK- based teams over the past four years, but the private sector alone cannot deliver to the scale required to realise our mutual nuclear ambitions. We require positive action from both governments to
Above: Learnings from Flamanville 3 are already paying dividends in the construction of UK EPRs
20 | May 2023 |
www.neimagazine.com
ensure skilled personnel have the mobility to support new nuclear projects in both countries. Not just engineers, but digital experts, project management specialists, and a plethora of non-technical disciplines that all contribute towards the delivery of new energy infrastructure. Many voices are calling for specific policy intervention on this issue.
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