Nuclear power: is the UK back in the race?

On 6 February 2025, the Prime Minister (“PM”) and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (“DESNZ”) released a joint statement titled “Government rips up rules to fire-up nuclear power” declaring plans to put Britain back in the global race for nuclear energy as part of the Government’s drive to achieve the broader “securing home-grown energy” objective of the PM’s Plan for Change (which sets a target for the UKs power generation to be 95% clean by 2030).

The UK was the first country in the world to develop a nuclear reactor, but the last time a nuclear power station was built was back in 1995. The joint statement recognises that the industry has been suffocated by regulations and lack of investor confidence, leaving only one nuclear power station – Hinkley Point C – under construction (although we might also assume that a second – at Sizewell C – will also soon commence construction too). Meanwhile China is constructing 29 reactors and the EU has 12 at planning stage.

The plans will shake up the planning rules to make it easier to build nuclear across the country.

1. The first major change proposed by the PM and DESNZ is in respect of the planning system. Current rules restrict the number of nuclear energy developments to only eight sites in total across the entirety of England and Wales. This restriction will be lifted completely to encourage more nuclear energy developments across the UK. The intention here is that projects will be delivered in a wider range of locations. The planning system will also be streamlined to simplify upstream project due diligence to encourage early investment. The Government claims that developers will be encouraged to propose new sites as soon as possible at the pre-planning stage to shorten the overall length of such projects. The new planning rules will also see the removal of expiry dates on nuclear energy projects to encourage a long-term view of such projects and ultimately offer certainty to investors.

2. Another key element of the announcement is the establishment of a Nuclear Regulatory Task Force (“Task Force”), with the aim of improving the UKs current nuclear regulations to encourage simplied project inception and domestic and international investment. The Task Force will report directly to the PM. The new rules will marry up the civil and the defence nuclear regulations in an effort to streamline the system and will be focused on speeding up the approval of new reactor designs and enhancing the relationship between developers and regulators. Some key focus points of the Task Force will be to reduce duplication where multiple regulators oversee overlapping issues and to align the UK's regulations with international partners to reduce friction for external developers or investors.

3. Another exciting element of this announcement is the promotion of Small Modular Reactors (“SMRs”) which have long been seen as a potential solution to the UK's growing energy demand. SMRs will now be permitted (and indeed encouraged) and could offer a quicker and cheaper alternative to larger nuclear energy projects. SMRs could be particularly beneficial in their flexibility of deployment, with the potential that they can be deployed in locations which have intense energy requirements so that the SMRs can primarily serve specific local demand. Data centres are an obvious example, but also strategic transport and manufacturing hubs such as ports. The growing trend of the adoption of private power generation and storage (or “micro-grids”) will surely benefit from the deployment of SMRs.

The PM and DESNZ claim that there will continue to be a “robust criteria” for nuclear energy projects, with a balance to be struck in respect of population density; community engagement; military activity; the maintenance of high environmental standards and a variety of other factors. This will clearly prove to be difficult in practice, but the PM and DESNZ are certainly suggesting that new projects and the anticipated economic growth that will stem from them must take priority, which is good news for the nuclear energy sector and investors.

On the back of other changes to the planning system and other steps towards encouraging infrastructure projects (such as changes to judicial reviews of infrastructure projects), this announcement is encouraging and could lead to a wide expansion of opportunities for businesses in the nuclear energy space.

Our full-service, multi-disciplinary team of lawyers advises and supports clients with achieving their aims in the nuclear industry. Our specialist nuclear practice is built on the experience and quality of our lawyers coupled with our sector knowledge, which really sets us apart. Please do get in touch if you would like to discuss how we can support your business in this sector.