Lord Tarassenko
Main Page: Lord Tarassenko (Crossbench - Life peer)
Lord Wilson of Sedgefield (Lab)
I welcome the questions from the noble Baroness. To answer both, we still intend on making sure that we have 70% of content as far as the supply chain, for example, is concerned. Nuclear fuel is obviously an issue for the private sector and the developers there. As I said, we are not going to rely on Russian fuel after 2028.
Lord Tarassenko (CB)
The announcement that the SMR contract was to be awarded to Rolls-Royce was welcome, but the impact on UK manufacturing is also important. Have the Government made an assessment of how many suppliers in the supply chain are going to be first-tier companies supplying directly to Rolls-Royce, rather than simply second-tier companies?
Lord Wilson of Sedgefield (Lab)
I will write to the noble Lord on that question. As I said, we want to ensure that 70% of the supply chain is in the UK. We have designed the nuclear plan for skills, which is highly important. We have already 4,000 early career starts entering in 2024-25 and we want to ensure that we have the right skills set to do that. I will write to him on that issue. I will continue to say that we are at the beginning of a golden age for nuclear in this country and are putting down the foundations for that. We want to make sure that we fulfil what we are setting out to do in the years to come.