People who have taken the decision before, put behind yours.
The advisers are former regulators, programme directors, financiers and lawyers who have taken the decisions they now advise on. The capability on this page is theirs. NCL brings them together, matches one adviser or a small panel to the question, and provides the contract, the governance and the assurance around the engagement.
Advisory is the right route when what the client needs is a judgement. Where the analysis beneath that judgement has to be built, NCL builds it through Consulting.
Case studyDue diligence on an acquisition of more than £1bnAn acquisition of nuclear assets of more than £1bn needed technical and financial due diligence to an extremely tight timetable. NCL’s adviser-led team, spanning investment banking, former regulators and supply chain specialists, analysed the operations, technical and financial models and found significant anomalies in the models underpinning the valuation.
Where NCL advisers work
Nine areas, each led by advisers who have held the decision themselves.
National nuclear programmesWhether a programme can be delivered, and what a country must put in place firstInvestment decisionsAn independent view before capital is committedCommercial and financial assessmentDue diligence and transaction judgement on nuclear assetsStrategy and policy opinionsWhether a strategy or a drafted policy will bear weightTechnology selection and credibilityWhether a technology is credible, and which one fitsDisputes and expert opinionExpert evidence that holds up under cross-examinationCoaching for nuclear leadersCounsel for people newly carrying a senior nuclear roleRisk managementOne independent read across programme, safety and commercial riskLegal supportNuclear expertise alongside legal counsel
National nuclear programmes
Whether a programme can be delivered, and what a country must put in place first
Governments weighing a first or renewed nuclear programme face the same questions in the same order: whether nuclear belongs in the energy mix, what institutions, regulator and skills must exist before a vendor is engaged, and how the programme will be governed and paid for. NCL advisers have sat on the government side of those questions in the United Kingdom and overseas, and frame their advice around the IAEA Milestones Approach.
ExampleOne adviser was seconded into the developer of the first UK new build in a generation and advised the government department on regulator mandate renewal, cabinet papers and industrial competence decisions. Another has built national nuclear governance from first principles: nuclear law, an independent regulator and the implementing organisation.
Investment decisions
An independent view before capital is committed
At final investment decision, at a committee or board review, or at each staged commitment of early development, an NCL adviser gives an independent reading of whether the case holds, which assumptions carry the risk and whether the plan beneath the numbers can be executed.
ExampleThree years as lead adviser to an overseas utility seeking a shareholding in a UK new build site and approval for its own reactor design, working alongside financial and technical advisers and government towards a final investment decision.
Commercial and financial assessment
Due diligence and transaction judgement on nuclear assets
Generic due diligence misses what matters in nuclear: the licence conditions that constrain a business plan, the liabilities that outlast ownership and the regulatory relationships that are themselves part of the value. NCL advisers work for buyers, sellers, lenders and investors on what a proposition is worth, where the risk sits and what a funding case must survive.
ExampleTechnical and financial due diligence on a nuclear acquisition of more than £1bn, led by advisers from investment banking and regulation, and the economic assessment of a multi-billion-pound deployment programme within a government funding application for an advanced reactor developer.
Strategy and policy opinions
Whether a strategy or a drafted policy will bear weight
A board holding a strategy, or a department holding two drafted positions, needs to know which will survive contact with the industry. NCL advisers give that view before publication, and explain what a change in regulation means for one project rather than in general.
ExampleTwo years of technical and strategic advice on secondment to a central government research office, co-authoring the report on advanced enriched fuels that preceded the UK future fuels investment decision. Service on the government expert group whose recommendations preceded £230m of financing for a UK SMR programme.
Technology selection and credibility
Whether a technology is credible, and which one fits
Investors ask before committing, governments ask before choosing, and developers have to prove their claims. NCL advisers assess selection between large plant, SMR, AMR and fusion propositions, the credibility of a vendor’s claims on maturity, licensability and deliverability, and the regulatory path a technology will face in a given jurisdiction.
ExampleA UK market entry assessment for an international SMR and AMR vendor: three preferred sites shortlisted, base-case economics produced, and fuel and partnership routes assessed. The vendor used the study in its first engagement with UK government.
Disputes and expert opinion
Expert evidence that holds up under cross-examination
Contractual and technical disputes in nuclear turn on evidence that few experts are qualified to give. NCL advisers provide expert opinion and reports, support to determinations and claims, and independent assessment where two accounts of the same events cannot both be true. The expert is named at the outset, interests are declared and the opinion is the expert’s own.
ExampleA chartered surveyor and arbitrator with forty years of quantum and delay analysis, forensic claims preparation and expert witness work on major infrastructure and energy projects, alongside nuclear and energy projects lawyers who have drafted national nuclear law.
Coaching for nuclear leaders
Counsel for people newly carrying a senior nuclear role
A station director, licensing lead or programme director is dealing with a regulator, a safety case and a board at the same time, and the judgement that matters is specific to the industry. NCL advisers provide one-to-one counsel from the same seat: the first months in post, the regulator relationship, decisions without precedent and carrying a nuclear position to a board of non-specialists.
ExampleFormer station directors, the former internal regulation director of the UK EPR new build programme, and executives who have led national laboratory, fleet operations and decommissioning organisations.
Risk management
One independent read across programme, safety and commercial risk
Most nuclear organisations own programme, safety and commercial risk in different places and rarely read them together. An NCL adviser gives one independent view across all three, an opinion on the exposures missing from the register, and a test of whether the matters that should reach the board actually do so.
ExampleIndependent programme reviews of portfolios above £10bn, and on a £1bn nuclear acquisition the identification of anomalies in the valuation models followed by the risk mitigation and contractual remedies.
Legal support
Nuclear expertise alongside legal counsel
Legal teams need to know how a licence condition is applied in practice, what a regulator will accept, whether a technical account of events holds, and what a contractual position means once nuclear practice is taken into account. NCL advisers provide that expertise alongside counsel; legal advice itself remains with the lawyers. Where a formal opinion is required for proceedings, see disputes and expert opinion.
ExampleFour years embedded in a new build developer’s in-house legal team, supporting the nuclear site licence application, environmental permits, regulator liaison and core policy drafting. Four years as general counsel and company secretary to the parent body of a legacy reactor fleet.
Case studyAdvice that preceded £230m of government financingGovernment needed routes to mobilise private finance for the design, development and deployment of small modular reactors. An NCL adviser served on the small government-sponsored expert group that interviewed vendors and analysed assessment bottlenecks, site availability and supply chain needs. The recommendations were published to Parliament and government subsequently provided £230m of financing to a UK SMR programme.
The advisers
Advisory lead To be announced
Former regulators who have made licensing decisions, directors who have carried national programmes, financiers who have structured nuclear transactions and lawyers who have drafted nuclear law. Many advise confidentially, on matters their names would draw attention to, and are introduced privately rather than listed. Full profiles are provided when an assignment is discussed.
30Advisers12With a career in regulation, licensing and consent7In strategy, commercial and finance6In waste, decommissioning and operations