3 months ago
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The UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities are keen to assist University of Sussex academics in exposing the links to the military that were revealed in the recent UK Government’s launch of a ‘Roadmap’ for the civil nuclear sector (11 January 2024).[1]
In the public interest, Andy Stirling, Professor of Science and Technology Policy, and Research Fellow Dr Phil Johnstone, both at the University of Sussex, have done remarkable work over many years highlighting the lack of transparency and the extent of cross-subsidy between the civil and military nuclear sectors, despite facing official hostility, obfuscation, or denial.
The website of Sussex University includes an interesting and comprehensive introduction to their work: https://www.sussex.ac.uk/research/explore-our-research/business-and-economics/shining-light-on-nuclear-deterrent.
Professor Stirling has helpfully listed the many civil-military references to be found in the ‘Civil’ Nuclear Roadmap’ published on 11 January 2024:
“It is early days yet in our chances to read through details of the just-issued UK Nuclear Roadmap. But it is already abundantly clear what an important juncture this is.
“The UK Government has effectively now abandoned its previous efforts to deny the importance of military drivers of UK civil nuclear policy. Without any reflection on what this says about previous efforts to suppress discussion of this issue, the Government is now openly emphasising its significance.
“This represents a complete vindication of the clear and distinctive point that critical nuclear commentators have made for so long, despite official hostility, ridicule, obfuscation and denial, that civil nuclear represents a hidden bulwark that maintains the production, maintenance and potential employment of Britain’s arsenal of nuclear weapons”.
“Put simply British electricity customers are being deceived into paying above and beyond the money already openly allocated in the nation’s military budget towards the production and maintenance of these weapons of mass destruction and the means to employ them through the diversion of some of the income received through electricity bills to help train and retain staff and maintain a nuclear infrastructure which is used in part to support the military, as well as civil, nuclear programme.
“This Roadmap is just the latest manifestation of a longstanding government policy to engage in what effectively amounts to a massive deception of the British public; only this time ministers have finally been caught out. Given how important this issue is – and how much effort has been expended in earlier denials and suppression – it would be remiss of me not to highlight this.”
That the UK government is pursuing an uneconomic nuclear programme largely to maintain and renew military nuclear capabilities was also recently argued by Andrew Warren, the Chair of the British Energy Efficiency Federation, in an article for Business Green (10 January 2024).[2]
Readers will need first to access a copy of the ‘Roadmap’ which can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-nuclear-roadmap-to-2050 to cross-reference Professor Stirling’s helpful links:
| page | Text |
| 10 | [of pathways to 2050]
Publishing a Nuclear Skills Taskforce report alongside a Defence Nuclear Enterprise Command Paper, explaining how we will ensure our civil and military nuclear ambitions address our shared challenges and opportunities. |
| 7 | Not only does this Roadmap set a clear path for the growth of nuclear fission … it acknowledges the crucial importance of the nuclear industry to our national security, both in terms of energy supply and the defence nuclear enterprise, making clear that we are looking to identify opportunities to align the two across government, while meeting our commitments to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). |
| 14 | The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) will work jointly with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and key delivery partners to identify and tackle common supply chain challenges to ensure that we have a resilient nuclear supply chain. |
| 21 | The next twelve months will see key actions taken by government that will lay the foundation of long-term strategy in the nuclear sector: • launch of Alternative Route to Market and siting consultations • publication of Nuclear Skills Taskforce report • publication of Nuclear Defence Command paper. |
| 29 | To reach our ambitions for the deployment of new civil nuclear in Britain we need joined-up enabling policies. We have laid the foundation for a resilient civil nuclear sector and are now going further and accelerating efforts to make Britain one of the best places in the world to invest in civil nuclear power. Key to our approach is working alongside the nuclear defence sector. |
| 29 | [whole section on “Civil-defence collaboration”]
As outlined in the Integrated Review Refresh,19 government will proactively look for opportunities to align delivery of the civil and defence nuclear enterprises, whilst maintaining the highest standards of non-proliferation. |
| 49 | We are also supporting advanced uranium fuel development for micro-reactors, which, in addition to civil terrestrial applications, could be used for defence and extraterrestrial applications in the future. |
| 52 | Central to these is the UK’s network of national laboratories, including NNL and National Physical Laboratory, as well as the NDA and Nuclear Waste Services (NWS). These institutions and the connected capabilities are essential to the safe and secure operation of the UK nuclear feet, decommissioning, and radioactive waste management, and to sustaining our critical civil and defence nuclear programmes. |
| 53 | As we want to ensure that NNL continues to be able to deliver its mission to accelerate the deployment of fission and support energy security, defence, and health objectives. |
| 60 | The Nuclear Skills Strategy Group (NSSG) estimates that in 2023 we had around 83,000 people working in the civil and defence nuclear sectors. Their latest modelling, from employer data, indicates the number of workers in the sectors will need to increase to between around 150,000 to 180,000 by 2043 in a 24GW scenario, dependent upon the level of defence activity. |
| 61 | The Taskforce will turbocharge action on nuclear skills and support existing industry-led programmes and marks the start of longer-term strategic collaboration between DESNZ and MoD to develop the future capabilities needed for delivering the ambitious civil nuclear and defence programmes. The NSTF is working with defence and civil nuclear stakeholders including the NSSG, as well as DfE, to develop a range of proposed recommendations to grow the supply and diversity of skilled workers in the nuclear sector, including through scaling up existing activity. |
| 64 | We will continue to work with colleagues across nuclear and other sectors, as well as within defence and education, to develop the nuclear skills pipeline. |
| 64 | Recognising that companies in the supply chain do not solely operate in the civil space, we are working towards optimal alignment on supply chain management with the nuclear defence sector and wider infrastructure projects. |
| 65 | [Whole section on “Civil-defence interdependencies”]
To address the commonalties across the civil and defence supply chains and the potential risk to our respective nuclear programmes due to competing demand for the supply chain, DESNZ is working closely with MoD and the defence nuclear sector DESNZ and MoD have established a formal nuclear supply chain working group for government and our delivery partners to tackle shared challenges and identify further opportunities to collaborate. The overarching aim of this group will be to build the resilience of our shared nuclear supply chains by, for example: • sharing supply chain intelligence • working with industry to build upon existing initiatives to address supply/ demand mismatches • identifying and managing shared critical and fragile suppliers; and • aligning internal demand signals. |
Professor Stirling closes with this appeal to campaigners opposed to nuclear power and weapons:
“Without many nuclear critics loudly pointing out in different ways the long history of misleading official statements on this point, the Government may hope to be able after a while to get away with pointing to what is in fact a new strategy as if it somehow shows they were always open on this issue. Documenting this particular line of misinformation as it becomes clear to all, is an important way to illuminate the many continuing expedient inaccuracies on other points – like cost, ‘firm power’ and climate efficacy.
“We have a limited window to expose this naked example of nuclear misrepresentation in a way that helpfully underscores all the other post-truth distortions that we’re all trying so hard to challenge in this field. I would urge campaigners to take advantage of this opportunity by using these latest materials – and those we have published in the past – to expose this.”
As an organisation opposed to nuclear power and also nuclear weapons, as a partner in the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), the NFLAs are happy to assist Professor Stirling in making this appeal.
Ends//… For more information, please contact the NFLA Secretary by email to richard.outram@manchester.gov.uk
Notes for Editors
Professor Stirling and Dr Johnstone have kindly supplied the following links to related articles:
‘Why is support for nuclear power noisiest just as its failures become most clear?’ Reproduced in Open Democracy, 9 January 2022
‘Australian-UK-US nuclear submarine deal exposes civilian-military links’. Reproduced by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientist, 9 November 2021
‘Hidden military implications of ‘building back’ with new nuclear in the UK’. Reproduced by SGR from Responsible Science No. 3, 20 September 2021
https://www.sgr.org.uk/resources/hidden-military-implications-building-back-new-nuclear-uk
https://www.sgr.org.uk/publications/responsible-science-no-3
‘Beyond and beneath megaprojects: exploring submergeddrivers of nuclear infrastructures’. Published in the JOURNAL OF MEGA INFRASTRUCTURE & SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 2021, VOL. 2, NO. 2, 220–241
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/24724718.2021.2012351
2. https://www.businessgreen.com/opinion/4162015/submarine-thinking-lock-nuclear-power-reckless-economy-climate (behind a paywall)
