Forget the steel, Sheffield targets nuclear industry boost

The government today announced wide-ranging plans to bolster the UK's nuclear industry through the creation of a nuclear manufacturing hub in the North West and Yorkshire, designed to ensure that British firms benefit from the proposed rollout of a new fleet of nuclear reactors.

Speaking at the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre in Sheffield, business secretary Lord Mandelson announced that the city would also host the UK's new Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, a major research institute backed by the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester and supported by engineering giant Rolls-Royce.

In addition to the new centre, which is backed by £15m in government funding and £10m from the Yorkshire Forward development agency as well as funding from a number of industrial partners, Mandelson said that a further £8m would be provided to upgrade the nuclear laboratories at Manchester University's Dalton Nuclear Institute.

He added that Yorkshire and the North West would also be designated as the UK's third Low Carbon Economic Area (LCEA), joining the South West's marine energy hub and the North East's low-carbon vehicles area as the first area focused on the nuclear industry. As part of its new LCEA status, manufacturing companies operating in the region will be offered advice and support from the North West Development Agency and Yorkshire Forward to help them access the nuclear energy market.

The announcements came on the same day as Rolls-Royce confirmed that it plans to locate a new civil nuclear factory in South Yorkshire.

Lord Mandelson said the latest announcements were evidence of the way in which the transition to a low-carbon economy can provide a boost to businesses and help create jobs. "We know that we have to make the transition to a low-carbon future, and the government is determined to ensure that British businesses get the support they need to seize the business opportunities that transition creates," he said. "The civil nuclear sector is one of the key low-carbon industries where the UK has the potential for job creation, economic growth and engineering and manufacturing excellence."

According to government figures, UK companies have the potential to provide up to 80 per cent of the work on construction of new nuclear power plants, plans for 10 of which were announced last month.

Speaking to the Nuclear Industries Association earlier today, energy minister Lord Hunt again underlined the government's commitment to expanding the sector, suggesting that the UK's nuclear energy plans would bolster its negotiating position at the forthcoming Copenhagen climate change summit.

"A global climate deal in Copenhagen needs all countries to make the most ambitious commitments possible, but it will also require us to change how we generate our energy," he said. "Nuclear is a low-carbon and secure source of energy and must be part of our future energy mix if we are to meet our climate change goals. We have already had commitment from industry to build 16GW of new nuclear in the UK. This manufacturing package will ensure we utilise the skills that we have in this country to make sure those power stations are built."