The South West Nuclear Hub will also run an education programme to train the next generation of nuclear plant operators, regulators and supply chain workers.
Hub co-director Tom Scott said: “Our objective is for the hub to become an internationally recognised centre for nuclear research and education.
“It will bring academic and industrial expertise together in an exciting multidisciplinary environment to address some of the major engineering, scientific and societal challenges related to civil nuclear power generation.”
The South West Nuclear Hub evolved out of the Bristol-Oxford Nuclear Research Centre (NRC), which was formed in 2011 as a partnership between the University of Bristol and the University of Oxford.
It was founded by the NRC but its members include a number of other universities and industrial partners. EDF, Areva, Sellafield, Horizon Nuclear Power, the National Nuclear Laboratory and the Culham Centre for Nuclear Fusion have all given support to the hub.
Chief executive of the Nuclear Industry Association Tom Greatrex tweeted that the opening is “all part of the UK’s wider nuclear renaissance”.