Memorandum submitted by Hyder (FC 88)
Hyder Consulting is one of the UK's largest
engineering consultancies and we provide technical services to
clients in the nuclear industry and employ a number of physicists.
We are very concerned that on 16 December 2009,
the Science and Technology Facilities Council announced a cut
in its support for nuclear physics research to only £6 million
per annum. This reduction of 29% for nuclear physics is totally
out of line with the much smaller reductions in support for particle
physics (4%), astronomy (10%) and space science (6%).
At present, the UK nuclear industry is positioning
itself for a new nuclear build programme. This programme will
inevitably be dominated by the French (EdF and Areva), Germans
(E.ON and RWE), Americans (Westinghouse) and Spanish (Ibderdrola)
who will dominate the utilities and vendor roles for the programme.
However, we have been optimistic that there will be many opportunities
for companies such as ours on the civil design, environmental
and safety fronts—all of which require highly qualified
physicists and engineers.
At such a crucial time in the new nuclear build
programme, it does seem perverse for the STFC to take such a decision.
Companies such as Hyder Consulting need to be able to rely on
a stream of highly qualified people emerging from the UK's universities
for the future health of our businesses and our reputation on
the world stage. Around 20 academic staff will cease to work in
nuclear physics as a result of these cuts. But the impact on physicists
at all levels in terms of the loss of this capability and the
message it sends will be much more severe.
In 2008, the (then) Department for Business,
Enterprise and Regulatory Reform commissioned Ernst & Young
to assess how attractive the UK was to international utilities
from the perspective of investment in new nuclear. The UK was
ranked third (behind China and the US and just ahead of European
countries). Decisions such as the STFC's undermine the steps that
are being taken to make the UK attractive. The consequences for
security of supply and our competitiveness could be severe.
At such a time, I would strongly urge the Science
and Technology Committee to demand an increase to funding to help
remedy the shortfall in skills capability. We need the sort of
skilled nuclear physicists emerging from the UK's universities
to help ensure that investment in the UK's nuclear programme can
lead to as many jobs as possible in this country, rather than
the need to use overseas supply chains.
John Priestland
Executive Director
January 2010
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