Nuclear sector ‘blighted’ by government indecision, peers say

Both the nuclear industry and researchers have been let down by successive governments and need a ‘decisive future’, the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee has claimed.

In its report Nuclear Research and Technology: Breaking the cycle of indecision, published on 2 May, the Lords committee urges the next government to formalise a plan for the nuclear industry in line with its industrial strategy, and to clarify its position on nuclear power.

The government needs to decide whether the UK should be a designer and manufacturer of nuclear generation technology, or whether the country should instead act just as an operator of equipment supplied by others from overseas, the committee said.