Nuclear Energy Improvement Programmes

The ENLIGHT Programme (Enabling a Lifecycle Approach to Graphite for Advanced Modular Reactors) is a five-year, £13 million initiative led by the University of Manchester in partnership with the Universities of Oxford, Plymouth, and Loughborough. Funded through an £8.2 million grant from UK Research and Innovation’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, higher-education contributions, and approximately £5 million of industry support, the programme seeks to establish a sovereign UK supply chain for nuclear-grade graphite while developing end-to-end solutions for managing irradiated graphite waste. By embedding sustainability and circular-economy principles into both production and decommissioning processes, ENLIGHT aims to bolster national energy security and support the UK’s net zero objectives through advanced reactor deployment.

Graphite serves as a critical moderator and structural component in a range of Advanced Modular Reactors—including high-temperature gas-cooled and molten salt designs—accounting for roughly one-third of reactor construction costs. The UK currently depends entirely on imported graphite despite holding over 100,000 tonnes of stored irradiated material from its existing Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor fleet, which is slated for decommissioning by 2028. ENLIGHT will therefore pioneer novel recycling technologies to reclaim value from legacy waste streams and develop new, high-performance graphite variants tailored for next-generation reactors. These efforts are intended to reduce environmental impact, lower lifecycle costs, and position the UK at the forefront of sustainable nuclear innovation and global reactor technology leadership.

Image Credit: