Research and Development Impacts
National Nuclear Laboratory works to develop technology, insight, and innovation across four focus areas:
- Clean Energy: developing and deploying advanced nuclear technologies to secure the UK’s place as a global leader in clean energy
- Environmental Restoration: applying innovative science and breakthrough technologies to support the legacy challenges and clean-up of historical nuclear sites in the UK
- Health and Nuclear Medicine: advancing nuclear medicine in medical research and in the treatment and diagnosis of conditions
- Security and Non-Proliferation: facilitating the global deployment of vital nuclear technologies by protecting nuclear materials, sites, and technology.
Within each focus area there are diverse applications of NNL’s R&D activities. For example, NNL works across the clean energy space with work ranging from supporting a new generation of UK nuclear power plant to development of a space battery technology to support clean energy for space travel.
£164m Revenue and investment in FY2022 to support R&D and scientific service activities
The work undertaken by NNL is well aligned to key government objectives, particularly the Government’s aims to decarbonise the UK economy and to boost R&D to spur growth. In FY2022, there was £164m of revenue and investment to support nuclear R&D and scientific services activities, including the reinvestment of profits to support self-funded research. This contributes to the UK government’s target of raising investment in R&D to 2.4% of GDP by 2027. At the same time, the UK is challenged with achieving growth whilst incurring potentially high costs from decarbonising the energy system. Nuclear energy is a core component of the UK decarbonisation agenda demonstrated in the government’s ten-point plan, point three of which emphasises delivering new and advanced nuclear power, with the Government’s aim being to ensure energy security whilst producing clean energy. Developing nuclear power as part of the long-term solution to the UK’s energy needs requires innovation and poses important cost and safety challenges.
We have mapped the impact of NNL’s work to develop technology and innovation across six impact categories:
- Value for Money (VfM) for nuclear power: NNL has enabled reduction in multiple lifecycle costs of nuclear plants. For example, innovations in advanced fuel cycles have facilitated higher efficiency and performance; waste treatment processes have been optimised to reduce costs; a better understanding of the behaviour of graphite has enabled its more efficient use in nuclear reactors.
- Safety and security: These have been enhanced in several ways: by enabling safer and more efficient disposal of hazardous waste; by enabling a better understanding of graphite and materials to ensure the appropriate controls are in place; by enabling the safer handling of radioactive materials.
- Environment: NNL’s largest contribution to environmental sustainability has been made through its work in facilitating decommissioning at Sellafield, reducing physical, chemical, and radiological hazards through its Decontamination Science and Environmental Radiochemistry Core Science Themes.
- Skills, jobs and attracting talent: NNL supports skills development across all its R&D themes. Apprentices and post-graduate researchers, as well as PhD students, were able to expand their skills by making use of NNL’s facilities and equipment to support a wide range of research, spanning from investigating the behaviour of fuel to receiving training on a new desktop scanning electron microscope (SEM) that enables thermal treatment.
- Supporting international partnerships: International partnerships were fostered to drive NNL projects, such as its collaboration with nine international laboratories to facilitate the development of thermal treatment.
- Developing technology and insights across sectors: NNL’s cross-sectoral impact originated for the most part from its work in developing technology to facilitate the diagnosis and treatment of health conditions, and its contributions to the development of batteries and robotics to enable space missions.