Energy and nuclear

The key challenges for energy concern the future security of supply and energy mix. Traditionally, there has been a reliance on fossil fuels, which brings about a host of socio-political issues regarding the extraction of fuel sources (in particular oil, but increasingly natural gas).

Nuclear power cooling station
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Replacing old generation nuclear infrastructure is a major challenge for the energy sector in the long term. There is a £1.6billion spend on the supply chain for decommissioning existing nuclear power stations nearing the end of their life.

These schemes must compete under an extreme environment for 60 years, and the UK therefore must demonstrate its workers are highly skilled and of high quality.

The University of Sheffield’s research on energy and nuclear is world-leading and ground-breaking, with capabilities across excellence in science, engineering and social science – spanning from understanding of the fundamental of origin to supply, generation, capture, storage, distribution, transmission, demand and recovery - of energy and nuclear supply chain systems.

Listed below are centres at the University of Sheffield that undertake energy and nuclear research:

Centres of excellence

The University's cross-faculty research centres harness our interdisciplinary expertise to solve the world's most pressing challenges.