Greatrex: Nuclear’s lifetime extension good for the UK

Amongst the seemingly endless speculation about Hinkley Point C, the announcement of plans to extend the life of four of the UK’s current fleet of nuclear power stations is welcome news for our security of supply, carbon emissions and the local and regional economies around Hartlepool, Heysham and Torness.

The stations, in the north of England and the east coast of Scotland, play a vital role both in maintaining low carbon baseload power as part of our mix but also towards meeting our binding emissions targets. With one fifth of the UK’s electricity coming from nuclear generation in the UK – in Scotland it is currently one third – the importance of extended lifetimes cannot be overstated. 

It is also very obviously good news for the 3,000 people employed between the three sites, safeguarding high quality, skilled jobs at a time when the economic headwinds have seen a general downturn in economic confidence, particularly outside of the south east corner of England.

2015 was one of the best years for output for the UK’s nuclear fleet, providing the secure, reliable and dependable baseload power which is the bedrock of a balanced energy mix, and doing so in a form which minimises carbon emissions. EDF chief executive Vincent de Rivaz, while noting the company’s continued investment to make lifetime extensions possible, was right to pay fulsome tribute to the contribution of the operating teams at UK nuclear power stations to make that possible.

While lifetime extensions of our current nuclear fleet help in the medium term, as both government policy and commercial reality see more thermal plant announce closure dates over the next few years, it is on new nuclear and developing technologies, including potentially small modular reactors, that we need to focus. Alongside renewables, demand side response technology, energy efficiency and peaking capacity, the role for nuclear in the decades ahead is a vital part of our broader mix.

Observing, and sometimes contributing to, the wider energy debate in recent years has been endlessly fascinating. Amongst the passion, innovation and knowledge, one of the less uplifting features is the tendency of some to focus on technology v technology arguments, perhaps because it is a more comfortable place to rest than realising the reality of the scale of the challenge.

While industry and investors will look to government to set the policy framework, it is also the responsibility of the energy sector to encourage a joined up and inclusive approach, utilising the different characteristics of different technologies to provide a broad generation mix for the future that both minimises emissions and maximises energy security.  

In Scotland, where nuclear, along with wind, solar and hydro power make up three quarters of the power generated there, low carbon energy sources combined make a significant contribution to reducing emissions from homegrown energy. While it remains the case that Scotland continues to import power from the rest of Britain when wind speeds are low, the contribution of the newly extended Torness, and Hunterston on the west coast, is significant in being able to boast of a lower carbon mix.

Across the UK as a whole, the proportion of power generated from renewables is growing; the government is keen to see new CCGT as old thermal and peaking plant closes; demand side and storage technologies are making progress – but if we are serious about security of supply while reducing emissions in power generation at a time when demand for power will increase from heat and transport, then nuclear power will be part of the energy landscape for the future as much as it has been over the past fifty years.

Tom Greatrex is the chief executive of the Nuclear Industry Association, the trade body for the civil nuclear industry.