How to value social outcomes in the nuclear sector

Defining social value

Social value is a long-term commitment made by an organisation to create a positive return for all stakeholders through collective impact. According to Social Value International, social value is defined as the quantification of the relative importance that people place on the changes they experience in their lives.

At Costain, we define social value as the action we take to improve people’s wellbeing, whether that’s through the services we provide or the way we operate. The social outcomes and the shared value we create, help address critical national needs and contribute to the objectives of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The principles that underpin our approach minimising our impact on the environment and supporting the communities we work in are also driving change across all industries. They’re at the heart of the Public Services (Social Value) Act, which was introduced in 2012 and has led to a more robust stance on sustainability during the procurement of major projects. And they’re important to our stakeholders, who are more informed and empowered than ever before and expect us to change people’s lives for the better.

Our experience in working with clients to maximise the social value on schemes, both as consultant and programme manager, means we understand the realities of improving people’s lives through the life of a project, as well as beyond. It also makes us acutely aware of the pitfalls of looking at social value through too narrow a lens.

No two areas of the UK are the same, so the way people in each community define value will differ. Supporting people into jobs may be a national priority and a worthwhile endeavour in a town struggling to address worklessness. But it’s less so if that’s not a challenge that members of that community face.

A sustainable approach to resilient communities

Social value needs to be sufficiently broad for us to make decisions and shift to a values-based approach in our business cases. For infrastructure assets, the value can be both the intrinsic, and the extrinsic impact of the asset, on the wellbeing of society, throughout its lifecycle.

Intrinsic value is the social value ‘belonging naturally and essential’ to an asset. An example of this is the Tideway project where the intrinsic value of the super sewer is in cleaning up the river Thames. The intrinsic value is an important part of ‘why’ the asset is being built.

Extrinsic value is the wider value over and above the intrinsic value of the asset and is not essential to the functioning of the asset. On Tideway, this was social value that is not essential to the delivery of the project.

Clearly defining the extrinsic social value wanted from the Tideway project from the beginning has shaped the project delivery from procurement, through to community and staff engagement. The community volunteering, the work with people who were not in employment, education or training, skills and development programmes, and the biodiversity planning, were not essential to the delivery of the asset itself, but they have all amplified the positive impact of this multibillion-pound capital investment programme. Choices like this help to achieve our vision for a built environment that delivers better outcomes for people and the planet.

Social value is a fundamental shift in thinking and, therefore, this needs to be undertaken collaboratively with all of the stakeholders.

The lives of individuals and their communities can be transformed by proactively seeking out positive social and economic outcomes that create social value: you become part of the community and you can realise the opportunities to do more than deliver the project on time and on budget. The potential of the infrastructure industry at large to contribute more to the economic and social prosperity of the UK is an additional driver to do social value better on each and every scheme.

Research that Costain is leading, and years of delivering targeted social value on complex programmes, highlights some issues with defining and measuring social value effectively such as the value being created changes over time and varies between industries and regions.

What does that mean for infrastructure owners and operators and the delivery supply chain? How can we demonstrate what good looks like and evidence improvement if it’s difficult to benchmark and measure? And what impact will it have on alternative financing options, such as social impact investing?

The increased level of green financing is likely to increase the need for even more robust reporting on social value and it may be that improving visibility and trust in social outcomes could reduce the cost of finance for infrastructure projects.

Contributing to communities in Cumbria

Costain (as part of the Nexus Decommissioning Alliance) has been supporting Sellafield on its Decommissioning Delivery Partnership (DDP) since it commenced in 2016. The Framework is a long term 10-year contract enabling accelerated risk and hazard reduction, providing capacity and capability to deliver decommissioning tasks and projects.

The DDP social impact plan has been developed in alignment with Sellafield’s social impact objectives: Resilient Economies, Thriving Communities, Social Value Chains, Sustainable Incomes, Collective Impact, and Improve Performance, as well as SiX, Sellafield’s new social impact programme.

Activity to drive economic growth, sustainable workforces, and improved wellbeing

1. Creating a thriving, dynamic and multi-purpose youth and community hub

The DDP, with Costain taking a lead, is supporting the renovation of a community centre that’s not only a safe space for local young people, but will provide a range of positive activities, interventions, and services to all members of the community with the aim of significantly improving wellbeing, aspirations and community engagement.

2. Wellbeing and mental health support

Costain has been a collaborative partner supporting a range of valuable initiatives and projects driven by Alison Young from The Decommissioning Alliance. These have included local mental health first aider courses, the Brilliant Cumbria initiative which centres on building resilience in school children and the Terry Newton Grass Roots Project, a project that works with West Cumbria’s rugby and football clubs, breaking down mental health stigma, supporting with suicide prevention and raising mental health awareness.

3. Leaving a legacy for future generations

Focus has been given to activities that create self-reliance and independence and access to sustainable incomes beyond Sellafield by increasing skills, knowledge, aspirations and access to communities. As an example, Costain recruited four young people from the Phoenix Youth Project to research and prepare a community action plan in Cleator Moor. Residents identified a need for healthy eating guidance, a desire for financial management to be brought into the curriculum for primary school children, and a stakeholder forum to bring key actors in the community together to effect real change.

Infrastructure professionals are recognising that this is our moment to shift that paradigm towards valuebased decision-making. Communities need support to ensure their futures and environments are sustainable. Infrastructure can have a central role in better life actions, improved mental health, higher productivity and improved skills and educational outcomes for local communities, why would you not design all projects with value-based outcomes?

To discover more visit www.costain.com or contact one of our experts to understand how you can maximise social value on your project: john.edwards1@costain.com.

In January this year, more than seventy British engineering, construction and manufacturing companies met over the course of two days at a hotel in Bristol to discuss the delivery of a Generation IV advanced modular reactor, the Xe-100.

The technology, a high temperature gas-cooled reactor, is being prepared for delivery by reactor and fuel manufacturer, X-energy, and its UK deployment partner, Cavendish Nuclear.

HTGRs are the AMR technology being backed by UK Government support programmes. The Xe-100 is capable of producing 80MW electric and 200MW thermal energy, typically in packs of four.

Carol Tansley, Vice President of UK New Build at X-energy, says the recent supply chain engagement was characterised by the sound of pennies dropping for everyone involved.

“We shared detailed information on the X-energy design and construction methodology to show just how close to market we are with the Xe-100 technology. It’s advanced nuclear in terms of readiness, not just capabilities.”

“I think the myth has been slayed that all AMRs are a distant future prospect,” she says. “There is nothing that says the UK must follow a strict sequence of ‘known quantity’ GW scale plants, followed by larger light water SMRs when ready and proven, followed further down the line by AMRs.”

“At the same time, it was clear to us from the discussions that there is a breadth of capability potentially available in the UK, ranging from construction expertise to the manufacture of specialist graphite, capable of growing over time to support a long term build programme.

“There is a good fit with X-energy’s ethos of using off-the-shelf solutions where appropriate. The opportunity in the UK is huge, not just in terms of energy security and decarbonisation, but in the scope available for the UK supply chain. We can see potential for up to 10 ‘four packs’ of the Xe-100 in the UK and our goal would be for 80% of the value of projects to flow to UK companies.”

Mick Gornall, Managing Director of Cavendish Nuclear, says the ability to target industrial heat as well as electricity is a great step forward. “The well-progressed status of X-energy’s technology and the long-standing capability of Cavendish and the UK supply chain in gas-cooled reactor technology can truly accelerate cross-sector energy security and decarbonisation.”

The Xe-100 technology has already been selected for demonstration by the US Government and is scheduled to begin operation in the US in the 2020s. The company this month announced that its first plant will be at a site on the Gulf Coast, owned by materials science giant Dow, a customer for both heat and power.

X-energy has secured $1.2bn dollars of federal funding and raised over $500m of further investment from a mix of investors. It is planning to float on the New York Stock Exchange later this year via a business combination with the Ares infrastructure investment fund.

Tansley says the UK Xe-100 programme can be a ‘fast-follower’, with operation of the first unit in Britain around 2030, assuming it’s accepted for Generic Design Assessment this year.

“We’re gearing up for deployment. The Xe-100 can deliver on the UK Government’s priorities in terms of electricity production. But the bonus is the higher-temperature heat and steam that goes beyond what conventional small modular reactors can supply and is the key to the difficult, deep decarbonisation needed for industry.

“HTGRs are a known quantity in the UK because of EDF’s AGR fleet. We have a huge domestic skill set which can for the first time be dedicated towards capitalising on heat use as well as electricity. Obvious applications include hydrogen production, and replacement of fossil fuelgenerated heat for industrial processes.”

X-energy and Cavendish are in constructive discussions with EDF Energy about the prospect of deploying Xe-100s at Hartlepool.

“This is an ideal site with the operating AGR plant right on the doorstep of the Teesside industrial cluster”, says Tansley.

“We’ve been speaking to the local authorities, elected community representatives and local industrial and development companies. There’s a real appetite not just to decarbonise existing industry, but to align regional net zero development strategies and projects to bring high paying jobs and investment in new clean facilities which rely on both electricity and high volumes of high temperature heat.

In Tennessee, X-energy’s sister company, Triso-X, has this year also begun work on a manufacturing plant for the ‘Tri-structural Isotropic fuel’ that the Xe-100 and other AMRs will use.

Tansley says there is a strong case for fuel manufacture in the UK and the company is exploring options for manufacturing partnerships which could further boost not just domestic security of supply, but job creation and investment.

“We’re keen to see the Government press ahead with its ambitious plans for a programme of nuclear power stations, including the establishment of the Great British Nuclear body. We believe we can follow hard on the heels of our US programme and deliver first power around 2030, supporting the UK’s energy security and environmental goals, in particular the drive to deliver 24GW of new nuclear power by 2050.”

At just 13-metres long and weighing 500-tonnes, the “reactor pressure vessel” will create the heat needed to make steam for the world’s largest turbines.

It is the first of two nuclear reactors which will be installed at Hinkley Point C. Each reactor will help provide enough low carbon electricity for 3-million homes and will be vital in helping Britain achieve Net Zero and stronger energy security.

The reactor, made by Framatome in France, comes from the same factory which made the last nuclear reactor for a British power station at Sizewell B in Suffolk. It became operational in 1995.

The reactor first arrived in Britain at Avonmouth Docks in Bristol before being transported by barge to Combwich Wharf on the River Parrett in Somerset. The final journey was a 5-hour trip for 4 miles by a transporter to its permanent home on the construction site.

The arrival of the reactor marks a significant milestone for Hinkley Point C, where more than 8,000 workers are now on site every day. It will be installed in the reactor building after the dome is lifted into place.