Four ways to make the Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce a success

SUMMARY

The Government has announced a Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce, directly reporting to the Prime Minister, to “spearhead” nuclear regulations to encourage home-grown development of nuclear energy.

Given the critical importance of developing clean, cheap energy, this announcement is extremely welcome.

The UK’s energy costs are among the highest in the world. This is a major constraint on economic growth. There is a growing consensus that high-income, low-energy countries don’t exist, and economists have overwhelmingly called for boosting energy supply to be one of the top priorities for the government.

After years of declining demand, the UK is projected to see its need for electricity increase, as more households switch to electric vehicles and heat pumps.

Delivering on the Government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan will also require accelerating energy production in the UK, for AI Growth Zones, as AI drives demand for more - and more powerful - data centres.

A wave of private investment, and advances in small modular reactors (SMR) mean that privately funded reactors could be delivered quickly if the UK can clear the regulatory blockers.

However, a Taskforce is not an end in itself; the goal is to deliver nuclear power. We can learn from the experience of the Vaccines Taskforce (VTF) and Frontier AI Taskforce, to build effective and durable state capacity for delivery.

To make the Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce a success, the Government should ensure that it has:

• A clear objective, with measurable, concrete targets and deadlines.
• A single-point empowered, accountable leader who is able to act freely without excessive bureaucratic constraints.
• Direct access to relevant technical expertise, to sift between viable candidate reactors, promote promising new entrants, and learn from international best practice.
• Ownership of the regulatory process, from start to finish, to ensure that these improvements result in the delivery of new nuclear capacity.

Read the full article on UK Day One