Manufacturers going nuclear

Michael Sharpe gives an update on last week’s meeting of the Nuclear Skills Forum in western Sydney.

Nuclear power is banned in Australia. It seems government legislation needs reviewing in light of the rapid advancement with small modular reactors, the recent SMR funding by the UK Government, developments in the USA and the expanding AUKUS Partership. 

It was terrific to bring leaders from industry and research organisations together for the latest meeting of the Nuclear Skills Forum. 

We are growing fast and working together to build practical manufacturing opportunities across the global nuclear industry. Collaboration is the key driver.

Dr Edward Obbard talked about the latest opportunities for skills training in nuclear engineering and provided further insights to the supply chains and requirements of  the nuclear industry. Edward’s industry background includes advanced manufacturing in the gas turbine industry (Alstom, AG), and nuclear engineering (ANSTO) where he led the design to commissioning of a hot cell facility for materials research. 

Our meetings are held on the factory floor and this event was held at Omni Tanker. Our guest speaker was Gary Wilson, Research and Technology Manager – Defence, at Rolls Royce.

There was talk about the new contract that Rolls Royce has to build small modular reactors for the UK Government and Australian manufacturing technologies that could potentially help with nuclear fuel storage systems. We had representatives from a range of companies including Leussink Engineering in Wollongong, Nepean Power in Newcastle and Eilbeck Heavy Machining at Ingleburn. TechnoFast wanted to join us from Brisbane but the covid lockdowns prevented them from joining the site visit. 

Actively uniting researchers and industry, Ed Obbard was joined by Justine Jarvinen, CEO at the UNSW Energy Institute. We all enjoyed the site tour of the Omni Tanker facilities. The composite tanks manufacturer operates in the transport market in Australia and now exports chemical road tankers to the United States and Europe. 

Omni Tanker is now entering the space industry via a collaborative project with Lockheed Martin. With research support from UNSW and project co-funding from the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre, the space project will open new opportunities for this growing company into an exciting and expanding market.

We know that Australian manufacturers need to build resilience and have a diversity of customers along with a diversity of products. The ongoing aim of the Nuclear Skills Forum is to unlock further opportunity.

It was good to be joined by representatives from ANSTO, AusIndustry, the Entrepreneurs Program, SADIG and Manufacturing Skills Australia. Special thanks for the support from Ian Hudson, Executive Director at the Industry Capability Network.

We know that the AUKUS Partnership includes nuclear propulsion for submarines and we are encouraged to see AUKUS already expanding with particular emphasis on cyber capabilities, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies and more. 

The UK is investing hundreds of millions into the nuclear industry, including a new £120 million Future Nuclear Enabling Fund to provide targeted support towards further nuclear projects as part of their Net Zero Strategy. 

The UK Government’s Business and Energy Secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, said:

“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for the UK to deploy more low carbon energy than ever before and ensure greater energy independence.

Small modular reactors offer exciting opportunities to cut costs and build more quickly, ensuring we can bring clean electricity to people’s homes and cut our already-dwindling use of volatile fossil fuels even further.

In working with Rolls Royce, we are proud to back the largest engineering collaboration the UK has ever seen – uniting some of the most respected and innovating organisations on the planet. Not only can we maximise British content, create new intellectual property and reinvigorate supply chains, but also position our country as a global leader in innovative nuclear technologies we can potentially export elsewhere.”

Together in Australia we are building something special with the Nuclear Skills Forum. Australian manufacturers have capabilities across a wide range, from watch manufacturing to the growing space industry and everything in between. As a united voice through our forum meetings, we have met companies including NuScale Power in the US and Rolls Royce SMR in the UK. We are asking the nuclear industry to give us their manufacturing challenges. With leading Australian manufacturers, world leading researchers and forming global partnerships, together we know we have strong capabilities. We are being proactive. Nuclear power remains banned under two federal laws, we should unlock the potential.