News

Urenco announces key findings of UK socio-economic study

06 December 2018

The wide ranging, substantial scope and scale of the contribution Urenco makes to the UK economy and society has been highlighted in the initial results of an independent report.

Dominic Kieran, Urenco’s Chief Commercial Officer, discussed the findings today in a speech at the Nuclear Institute Association’s conference in London, in which he explained how the UK nuclear fuel industry helps to deliver the Government’s Nuclear Sector Deal.

The report, commissioned by Urenco from the University of Central Lancashire, is a socio-economic impact analysis of our UK operations and global headquarters.

It states that:

"The greatest contribution made by Urenco, in terms of supplier spend, salaries, workforce and new facility development, is clearly concentrated in the North West and North Wales. In the region that is home to the UK civil nuclear industry, and the emerging ‘Nuclear Arc’. From Sellafield to Wylfa, Urenco remains a significant presence and contributor of substantial value to the region and industry."

Key findings, under the five foundation areas of the Nuclear Sector Deal, are as follows:

Ideas

• Through our Richie education programme, Urenco invests in inspiring a broad participation in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) education and engagement with nuclear issues.
• STEM related jobs pay on average 10% more than equivalent roles in other areas (UK Commission for Employment and Skills)

People

• We employ people in skilled, well paid jobs which out-perform the regional, sector and job median salaries.

Infrastructure

• We have made a substantial investment in a new deconversion, or tails management, facility at Capenhurst, which responsibly manages the bi-product of our enrichment services.
• The investment has been spread across the supply chain, with 98% of the total suppliers based in the UK.

Business environment

• We engage with a deep and wide network of suppliers reaching every region of the UK while operating a business which significantly outperforms the average productivity for the sector.
• For our UK companies, 95% of our supply chain spend in 2017 was in the UK (a significant proportion of which was in the nuclear arc).

Places

• 82% of our UK employees are located within the nuclear arc of North West England and North Wales.
• The majority of our employees live close to their place of work and so personal spending is clustered principally around Merseyside and Cheshire.
• We are supporting local voluntary organisations by offering our workforce eight hours per year to volunteer in the community, in addition to sponsorships and donations made by Urenco.

We will seek to publish further findings next year after the second stage of the analysis is undertaken by the university.