A UK foresight study of materials in decarbonisation technologies : the case of nuclear

Nuclear fission is a key energy source for many countries and will play a growing role in global decarbonisation. It is an attractive low-carbon technology due to its on-demand reliability and energy security. As of 2022, the installed global nuclear capacity is approximately 370 GW (International Atomic Energy Agency, 2023). It provides 10 per cent of global energy demand and 20 per cent of demand in advanced economies (International Energy Agency, 2022). The UK’s civil nuclear capacity as of 2024 is approximately 6 GW (National Grid, 2023). The UK Government recently published the Civil Nuclear Roadmap, outlining an ambition to grow the UK’s civil nuclear capacity to 24 GW by 2050 (UK Government, 2024a). To achieve this growth, the UK needs a supply of specialist nuclear components, which require an array of materials including some critical raw materials (materials with high economic vulnerability and high global supply risk). The purpose of this report is to deliver an assessment of the UK material supply dependencies and demand to 2050 relating to nuclear sub-technologies.