Civil and military nuclear EnerGek: what differences? Written by: the Editorial next events:

As can be noted, it is for many countries in geopolitical risk zones that want to make nuclear power (apart from North Korea, the majority of the Middle East countries flooded with solar at much cheaper cost) still portrayed as civilian at the beginning.

Moreover, nuclear power has become indefensible in the face of hypersonic missiles and it is a mega-problem that involves not thinking like André Maginot with at least a war behind his time.

The interdependence between civilian and military nuclear infrastructure has been highlighted.

New research by Professor Stirling and Dr. Johnstone at SPRU provides a global picture of the industrial interdependencies between civilian and military nuclear infrastructure.

In an analysis of the associations between international patterns of nuclear capacity allocation, underwater nuclear infrastructure, regional military power status and levels of commitment to civilian nuclear energy, they note that the nuclear-weapon States remain the main supporters of nuclear power programmes. The research was first published in the World Nuclear Industry Report 2018 (launched in Chatham House on 4 September 2018).

The study, which is fully reflected in SPRU Working Paper 2018-13, shows that while nuclear power is increasingly recognized as an increasingly obsolete low-carbon energy source, owing to an increasingly unfavourable economic and operational situation, key military capabilities depend heavily on its continued existence.

In particular, in the context of the decline of the global nuclear industry as a whole, plans to extend the life of power plants and to build new nuclear power plants remain major areas of investment in a few specific countries. Intense commitment remains to projects such as Hinkley point C in the UK, despite costs five times higher than initial estimates, a series of unresolved technical difficulties, and increasing demands for concessions and financial guarantees from the government.

With long-standing and well known links around the flow of special nuclear material, there are also significant industrial interdependencies in a number of leading military nuclear States around the support capabilities of naval nuclear propulsion programmes.? While civilian nuclear power is declining in the United States, a series of recent reports have highlighted the importance for the "nuclear navy" of maintaining a national nuclear engineering base supported by policies to support the civilian nuclear sector.

In addition, the agreement of the UK Nuclear Industry Council states that "the industry is committed to increasing opportunities for transfer between civilian and military industries and, in general, to increasing mobility to ensure that resources are placed where required" and that 18 per cent of expected skill gaps can be met by "transferability and mobility".

The revelation of this dependence between civilian and military nuclear capabilities could open a new window of opportunity for robust measures to reduce global military nuclear threats.

Http: / / www.sussex.ac.uk / spru / newsandevents / 2018 / findings / nuclear _ infrastructures

.