Life has changed considerably for Tom Greatrex over the course of the past year. He has gone from debating the minutiae of government energy policy to sharing a conference hall with Stormtroopers.
“It was science fiction meeting science fact,” jokes the now chief executive of the Nuclear Industry Association (NIA). Sharing the corridors of Birmingham’s NEC with Star Wars characters camew a year after he departed the corridors of power in Westminster having lost his Rutherglen and Hamilton West constituency seat, and almost four months after starting in his new role at the NIA.
It could be argued that he has left the frying pan and leapt into the fire, because nuclear power is a hot, and often controversial, topic. It is even more controversial right now with rumour and conjecture swirling around the question of when – and Greatrex is sure it’s a when and not an if – Hinkley Point C will get the final go-ahead from EDF.
Alongside this, the former Labour MP and shadow energy minister is eager to defend the industry he now represents by dismissing claims that it is destined to be an electric dinosaur. He is convinced it can intertwine with renewables and other generation technologies.
But first, let’s clear up how he ended up brushing shoulders with Wookies and Jedi. “I was at the NEC for the Big Bang Fair – a science fair for kids – just to see how it works, and at the same time there was a comic fair in one of the other halls!”
With that out of the way, attention swiftly turns to the major nuclear issue: Hinkley Point C and the seemingly eternally delayed final investment decisions from EDF.
Greatrex pulls up Utility Week straight away, saying the decision cannot be said to have been delayed because no date was ever set for the final investment decision in the first place.
“There has been lots of speculation, but nothing has come from EDF about making the decision,” he says. “It is a big, significant infrastructure project and EDF, as the developer, is taking on the construction risk, so they have to be confident they can deliver it. It’s right they ensure their plans and preparations are fully formed before it goes ahead.”
French economy minister Emmanuel Macron told a French newspaper that a “decision could be confirmed next September” once EDF’s financial situation had improved, a 60-day consultation with French trade unions had been completed, and if measures to ensure construction went according to plan.
Greatrex also rubbishes claims that EDF is stalling over Hinkley Point C so that it can find an excuse to abandon the £18 billion project.
“I went down to Hinkley Point the other week and a lot of work has been done, and is being done, in preparation,” he says. “Lots of things have happened down at the site, and if the suggestions were serious that EDF is just playing for time and is not committed to the project, I don’t think we’d have all the work going on.”
Greatrex highlights that EDF’s new office is in Bristol – the nearest big city to the Hinkley site – and is evidence of EDF’s commitment to the project. He also states that a number of contracts with the supply chain have been lined up with preferred bidders – including a catering contract for food grown in the South West to be used to feed the thousands who will be on site when construction gets underway.
This is all so that when the final investment decision is made by EDF’s bosses, “there isn’t a huge gap” between it being signed off and construction starting.
The NIA chief executive is clearly frustrated at the ongoing speculation surrounding Hinkley Point C, saying that the first new nuclear project in the UK for a generation was always going be shrouded in rumour and counter-rumour because “it’s the last chance for people to set out their concerns and objections to it”.
He even goes on to say that some of those spreading rumours are “mischief making”.
So Greatrex has concrete confidence that EDF will proceed with Hinkley Point C – even if no concrete has actually been poured yet. He also has belief in the Horizon and NuGen projects (which are at earlier points in the development process than Hinkley), whatever the eventual decision of the French energy giant.
Horizon and NuGen do not depend on Hinkley Point going ahead because they both employ different reactor designs, although if you speak to the consortiums themselves, they will say they want to see Hinkley Point C going ahead because “it is all part of the bigger programme we need to develop the future energy mix”.
But what of the argument that by the time any of these new reactors come online in the late 2020s, they will be baseload dinosaurs in a decentralised and renewable energy world?
Greatrex says history teaches us a different lesson. Early electricity systems were based on decentralised energy and microgeneration, but out of necessity the system became centralised and reliant on baseload generation. “We still need centrally dispatchable power for industry to pull on and we still need a significant amount of electricity,” he says.
For those who claim the development of storage will negate the need for nuclear, Greatrex again makes a pointed defence. “To put it simply, to store it, first you have to generate it.”
Greatrex argues that nuclear power will deliver the bulk of the required baseload, while renewables working in conjunction with storage will minimise the need for peaking plant, which is usually made up of fossil fuel generation.
Expressing his frustration at some commentators who do not appreciate the need for a mix of generation in the system – now or in the future – Greatrex says: “There is no silver bullet when it comes to generation technology. Those people saying there is are firing blanks. There are lots of different technologies about and all of them will have a role.”
One technology the government will be hoping has a future role is SMR (small modular reactors), so much so that in the Budget, chancellor George Osborne unveiled a £50 million package of support and his intention to develop a roadmap for the small reactors.
This is “broadly the right thinking”, according to Greatrex, but he warns against getting carried away with the technology. “It may give us another technology to factor into the energy mix in the future, but it is not going to be immediate. I’m not saying we won’t get there, but we’re not there yet.”
When SMRs are finally proven and commercially available, Greatrex says they will have huge potential in terms of generating low-carbon electricity. “I think it’s going to be complementary to existing technologies and it could open up a whole set of sites that are currently not suitable for tradition nuclear power generation.
“There may be advantages for combined heat and power uses and there may also be SMR uses on industrial sites.”
Alongside these uses, Greatrex, firmly with his NIA hat on, is keen to bang the drum for the export and manufacturing potential the technology has.
This will in part rely on consistent support from the Department of Energy and Climate Change, which is not a given bearing in mind the change of heart the government had over carbon capture and storage with the withdrawal of the £1 billion competition and the rejection of planning permission for the White Rose project.
Greatrex has seen the development of energy policy close up from the opposition benches during his five years in Parliament, and believes support for SMR will be forthcoming despite the spate of changes the Conservatives have unveiled over the past year.
“We’ve had relatively stable policy over the past three governments, including this one – and they have been of three different political colours.
“Broadly speaking, there has been a shared objective since 2006/07 onwards… This is a recognition of the importance and significance of climate change and the need to reduce emissions, particularly in power generation, and the need to improve security of supply.”
Despite this, the NIA chief executive recognises that there is often a conflicting interest between the long-term needs of the sector – which looks forward over decades – and the short-term tenure of MPs, who are looking at the next election.
He adds that the National Infrastructure Commission should help to extend that political thinking, adding that “in a previous life I was heavily involved in proposals for developing an energy security board”.
This brings the conversation back to Greatrex’s political life. Is it something he misses?
“Fortunately I’ve moved into a world where there is a lot going on, so there isn’t time to get bored or to think the pace is slow,” he says with a wry smile. “I don’t miss not having much time at the weekend or with the family.”
Fulfilling the role of a public servant is something he says he does miss “and will always miss”. “It was something that was a big part of my life, but it’s something I don’t do anymore.
“I’m much more focused on what I’m doing now than replaying what may or may not have happened if the election had been different.”
Being able to spend more time fully getting into the depth and detail of the nuclear industry is one of the upsides Greatrex sees with his new role. “It’s always fascinating seeing what is going to happen next,” he says.
And sometimes that includes sharing the floor with characters from Star Wars.