Nuclear Energy: UK firms should ‘be bold’ and step into nuclear sector, industry leaders say
Industry leaders in nuclear energy have called on UK businesses to “be bold’” and step into the sector, as global demand for nuclear technology continues to ramp up.
Speaking at the Clean Energy Summit 2025, hosted by the University of Sheffield, key figures in the nuclear and wider energy sector hailed the opportunities present for UK firms in the growing nuclear industry.
David Bond CBE, former CEO of Sheffield Forgemasters and chair of SY Energy, told businesses “now is the time to start getting ready” to step into the sector.
His comments come after an assessment undertaken by SY Energy for South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority found that around 250 companies in the region and on its borders “have the ability” to work in the nuclear sector.
Mr Bond said: “The assessment here is that in the global market demand is going to outstrip supply, which is a great opportunity if you’re bold enough to step into it. Companies need to think about how to scale up, but they also need to think about competitiveness and productivity. Business as usual won't get you into this market, because it is competitive.
“They're going to have to be bold, but now is the time to start getting ready, to start looking at those aspects of your business, looking at how you modernise, how you get those capabilities in business.”
The comments came shortly before the announcement of a major multi-billion-pound deal to expand nuclear energy in the UK and US.
As part of the Atlantic Partnership for Advanced Nuclear Energy – signed by Prime Minister Keir Starmer and US President Donald Trump on Thursday – energy supplier Centrica will collaborate with US firm, X-energy, to develop up to 12 advanced modular reactors in Hartlepool.
In South Yorkshire, Rolls-Royce is currently working to develop Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) – small nuclear reactors which can be built in factories and transported elsewhere for use.
Speaking at the Clean Energy Summit, Ruth Todd CBE, operations and supply chain director at Rolls-Royce SMR, said: “Worldwide demand is starting to emerge for nuclear, and policy is sitting behind it that makes you think it's genuinely going to happen too. It’s a truly exciting time and genuinely global.
“There’s a counterbalance to that, that supply chain capacity isn’t there. Suppliers aren’t ready.
“Nuclear has traditionally been a market where there’s a one-off call which answers a one-off desire to build something, but we're now moving into a world where there will be an order book that will be full.
“We have this wonderful opportunity for the UK to lead in presenting these smaller reactors that are going to revolutionise the energy transition.”
Rolls-Royce also announced last week that it had entered the US regulatory process for its SMRs.
Tom Greatrex, chief executive of the Nuclear Industry Association and former Shadow Energy Minister, added that macroeconomic developments had also led to a surge in demand for nuclear energy.
He said: “What we’ve seen in the last 12 months is because of what’s happened for the two or three years before that. To put in one sentence, you’d say it was a dose of reality.
“Energy security has become a real issue for the first time in many years, so some of the complacency that possibly existed in policy makers has fallen away. The reality of the need for clean energy has also become apparent through some of the situations we’ve had through various weather patterns.”