Lack of Supply Chain - familiar enemy

The UK’s “golden age of nuclear” faces a familiar enemy. Building this

new generation was supposed to turbocharge local industry and employment.
“The supply chain needs to be built,” warns Jason Cheng, co-CEO of
private equity firm Kerogen CX. “If you don’t build the supply chain, it
will be like what happened in offshore wind.” While offshore wind was
supposed to build local industry, many of these hopes have been thwarted
with manufacturing done elsewhere. The nuclear industry has growth
challenges. In the Western world there has been little growth in the last
two decades, with Cheng describing it as a “holding
pattern-slash-decline”. Growth in the nuclear sector is driven largely by
other countries, particularly China. The UK’s entire ecosystem – from
manufacturing to skilled workforce – has atrophied. A recent announcement
from Rolls-Royce SMR illustrated the problem. The company struck deals for
reactor pressure vessel work with Skoda in Czech Republic and Doosan
Enerbility in South Korea. For Doosan, this represents a “strategic
foothold” into Europe’s SMR market. The Korean firm plans to build an SMR
fabrication shop at its Changwon headquarters. Ruth Todd, Rolls-Royce SMR’s
supply chain director, called these “some of the most important long-lead
items” in a nuclear plant. The early partnerships aim to ensure
“critical components can be designed for manufacture, reducing project
risk and enabling on-time delivery.” Yet this reveals the challenge. The
company has previously said it could deliver a local fleet of SMRs with up
to 78% UK content, while Sizewell C is targeting 70%. Rolls-Royce has said
the UK does not have the capacity to provide all SMR requirements. It
singled out steam generators, reactor pressure vessels and reactor coolant
pumps as lacking locally. The challenge is growing and scaling fast enough
to meet demand.