Lords urge revival of UK’s nuclear research

Under-funding and poor coordination threaten the UK’s position in nuclear-energy research, a report from the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee has said. The UK is at the bottom of the 17 nations in the international nuclear fission research league table—behind non-nuclear Norway, Australia and Italy. In evidence to the committee, John Beddington, the government’s chief scientific adviser, said the UK needs a nuclear R&D roadmap and should replace the Nuclear Centre of Excellence, abandoned in last year’s spending review.