The Government’s acceptance of the Fingleton Review’s recommendations in full marks a serious and welcome shift in favour of removing the primary regulatory barriers to nuclear expansion, as recommended by the Policy Exchange Nuclear Enterprise Commission in June. By accepting the Review’s core diagnosis and signalling renewed political backing for the sector, Ministers have taken an important step towards reversing years of delay, high cost and institutional drift. Yet, while regulatory reform is essential, it is only the beginning of what a genuine nuclear renaissance will require.

The UK’s problem is now one of delivery rather than intent. The Government has correctly identified the principal barriers and accepted the need for reform, but it has not yet set out a full roadmap accounting for the full range of enabling factors necessary to turn ambition into deployment. Without a coherent strategy aligning governance, financing, innovation, supply chains, skills and grid planning, there is a serious risk that regulatory change will fail to translate into new capacity, and that the familiar pattern of fragmentation, delay and cost escalation will simply be reproduced in another form. The Commission’s future work will address each of these areas in greater detail over the coming months.

The fifth paper in The Policy Exchange Nuclear Enterprise Commission, Realising the Fingleton Review argues that the next phase must focus relentlessly on execution if the Government is to achieve its drive for growth and economic security. It calls for an empowered delivery body at the centre of government, permanent system-wide strategic planning, stronger support for reactor development and financing, a fleet-based approach to supply chains and skills, and grid investment undertaken in advance of deployment. Cumulatively, this comprehensive programme of reform constitutes a practical pathway to realising the Government’s ambition for a nuclear renaissance. Without it, the Government’s welcome commitment to nuclear risks falling short of the scale, speed and affordability needed when the need for rapid delivery is more urgent than ever.

Policy Exchange Nuclear Enterprise Commission

As the UK enters a decisive decade for its energy and economic future, the Policy Exchange Nuclear Enterprise Commission will continue to set out the bold, practical reforms required to rebuild a world-class nuclear enterprise, cut through the inertia of the past two decades, and deliver the nuclear renaissance Britain urgently needs.

The Commission will produce a series of discussion papers and research notes addressing the most pressing questions facing the UK’s nuclear enterprise. Drawing together expertise from across government, industry and academia, its research and events will span subjects from the nuclear deterrent and the nuclear threat landscape to regulation, the nuclear industrial base and dual-use technologies. This breadth will enable the Commission to propose in a final publication a wide array of answers to the considerable challenges at the heart of energy and national security policy.

It should be noted that all research papers produced under the banner of the Policy Exchange Nuclear Enterprise Commission are intended for discussion and do not necessarily represent the views of every member of the Commission, or the Commission as a whole.

Members of the Commission

• Rt Hon Lord Case CVO PC, former Cabinet Secretary (Chair)
• Dr Won-Pil Baek, Senior Research Fellow at Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute
• Professor Wyn Bowen, Head of the School of Security Studies at KCL and Professor of Non-Proliferation and International Security
• Joshua Buckland, Director of Strategy and Policy at EDF and a Senior Fellow at Policy Exchange
• Tom Greatrex, CEO, Nuclear Industry Association; former Shadow Minister for Energy of Great Britain
• Lt Gen H R McMaster (USA, Ret.), 25th U.S. National Security Advisor
• Frank Miller, former Special Advisor on nuclear matters to President George W. Bush and Nuclear Defence Specialist at the Department of Defence
• Professor Dame Fiona Murray DCMG CBE, Associate Dean for Innovation at the MIT Sloan School of Management and Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of the NATO Innovation Fund
• Professor Sir David Omand GCB, former Director of GCHQ 
• Rt Hon Lord Robertson of Port Ellen KT GCMG PC, former NATO Secretary General and Secretary of State for Defence
• Hon William J Schneider Jr, former Under Secretary of State for International Security Affairs
• Air Marshal Edward Stringer CB CBE, former Director-General of the Defence Academy and former Assistant Chief of the Defence Staff 
• Paul Taylor CBE, former Director General of Strategic Technologies at the Ministry of Defence
• Rt Hon Anne-Marie Trevelyan, former Minister of State for Indo-Pacific and Secretary of State for International Trade
• Dr Heather Williams, Director, Project on Nuclear Issues at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies
• Admiral Rt Hon Lord West of Spithead GCB DSC PC, former First Sea Lord