AtkinsRéalis and Mott MacDonald GBE-N study: siting insights for nuclear civil teams
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on New Civil Engineer
30 Second Briefing
Great British Energy – Nuclear has spent £58,282.31 on a scoping study assessing potential Scottish sites for new nuclear projects, appointing AtkinsRéalis and Mott MacDonald as technical advisers. The work is expected to focus on site suitability constraints familiar from UK nuclear siting practice, including coastal flood risk, seismic hazard, grid connection capacity and proximity to cooling water. For civil and geotechnical teams, this signals early-stage demand for site characterisation, ground risk assessment and infrastructure interface studies around shortlisted locations.
Technical Brief
- Scope likely includes rapid GIS-based constraints mapping aligned with existing UK nuclear siting methodologies.
- Geotechnical inputs are commonly limited to desk-based geological, seismic and offshore bathymetric datasets in such low-value studies.
- Output is expected to be a short-listing report feeding into later, higher-capex site investigation and EIA commissions.
Our Take
With Jacobs already appointed on planning and consenting for the UK SMR fleet and Amentum/Cavendish acting as Owner’s Engineer, AtkinsRéalis and Mott MacDonald’s role here positions them as part of a wider technical bench GBE‑N is building for site selection and optioneering across Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom.
GBE‑N’s earlier admission that it lacks an internal breakdown of the £20bn SMR Technology Partner budget means relatively low-cost studies like this one in Scotland could become important evidence bases when the client is challenged on value-for-money and regional siting choices.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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