The UK nuclear market for construction industry supply chain members is significant. The nuclear decommissioning authority projected spend of £3.3bn for the financial year 2015/16 purely in relation to civil decommissioning—add in military decommissioning and the significant future value of the nuclear new build market and the overall market is huge.

The sector requires a wide range of construction-related inputs, from large-scale civil engineering, demolition and project management, through to design services and facilities management (and much more besides). Some of these services require specialist nuclear know-how, others do not (although all members of the nuclear supply chain need to be aware of the special considerations which apply to working in the nuclear sector).

The nuclear sector is heavily regulated, especially in the UK, and the contracting structures and documents used can be correspondingly complex. This Practice Note provides an introduction to the sector from a legal adviser's perspective.