How to Become a Supplier to the UK Nuclear Industry

Getting into the UK nuclear industry as a supplier takes three steps. First, register on the supplier portal of each project you want to sell into. Second, work out which tier actually buys what you make. Third, start conversations with the people who place those orders, well before your package is tendered.

For Sizewell C the portal is Jaggaer. For most manufacturers, the buyer is not the company that owns the power station. It is a tier 1 contractor delivering a large package, or a subcontractor working under one.

Registering puts your company name in a database. It does not put you in front of the package manager who will choose the supplier. Most of this guide is about closing that gap.

Right now the newest demand comes from three places, alongside Hinkley Point C, which is still taking supplier registrations. The first is Sizewell C in Suffolk. The second is the Wylfa site on Anglesey, chosen for the UK's first small modular reactor (SMR) station. The third is the Rolls-Royce SMR supplier program. The Advanced Nuclear Framework is a separate, longer pipeline to watch.

Before you send any outreach, pick one slice of that market. It is the first thing I do with a new client: I start from who already buys from them and who signed those orders. Here is how I choose a market before writing any outreach.

What does the UK nuclear supply chain actually look like?

In buyer terms, a new nuclear station is a pyramid of companies, and the money flows down through it.

At the top is the project owner, the company that will build and run the station. Below it sit tier 1 contractors. These are the delivery partners that take on large packages, such as civil works or mechanical and electrical installation.

Below the tier 1s sit their subcontractors, which this guide calls tier 2. Each supplies one part of a package. Your product can be bought at any of these levels, and in practice it is often bought at only one.

EDF says Hinkley Point C has worked with more than 4,000 companies from across Britain, and that 64% of the project's value is going to British businesses. These are the project's own figures. Its local supply chain engagement team also shares information on the businesses it finds with tier 1 contractors and with Sizewell C, so one registration can travel further than one project.

This is the buyer map I would draw for any manufacturer before a single message goes out.

This is where nuclear stops looking like a normal plant sale. When you sell a machine to a factory, the factory is the buyer and the plant manager feels the problem, so you can find both.

A nuclear project works differently. The owner sets the rules and the tier 1 holds the commercial relationship. The person choosing your product may work for a firm whose name never appears in a project announcement.

Orders are also placed against a package and its schedule, so there is a buying window when most purchasing happens.

Which UK nuclear projects should manufacturers watch first?

Sizewell C

Sizewell C is the clearest live opportunity. Sizewell C asks businesses to register on the Jaggaer platform, which it describes as the central place to explore and apply for selected work packages. The platform also gives a forward view of upcoming procurement needs and an awarded contracts register.

The project says it has already placed over £2.5bn in contracts with nearly 300 UK suppliers. It also expects 70% of the construction spend to go to UK firms. Both are its own figures.

Firms in Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire have a local route as well, through the Suffolk Chamber's supply chain engagement team.

Wylfa SMR

In November 2025, the Welsh Government confirmed Wylfa on Anglesey as the site of the UK's first SMR power station. The project is expected to support over 3,000 jobs, with an initial investment of £2.5bn.

Three Rolls-Royce reactors are planned at first, with scope for five more. Further investment depends on talks between Rolls-Royce SMR and the state body GBE-N, which were still under way when the statement was published.

For manufacturers, the signal is in how SMRs get built. The statement explains that the modules are made in factories and then put together on site, which is why SMRs can go up faster than some traditional stations.

Factory-built modules mean fabrication and component orders. The same statement names North Wales' advanced manufacturing base as well placed for module work.

Rolls-Royce SMR's supplier program

In September 2026, the NIA reported that Rolls-Royce SMR has launched a supplier program with up to £1.4bn of contracts over the next year.

The company says it has formally engaged more than 650 UK businesses and held three UK supplier events. It also announced a supplier conference for 22-23 October 2026 on Anglesey. These are the vendor's own figures.

The program offers guidance to companies entering a new industry. That tells you it expects suppliers from outside nuclear.

The Advanced Nuclear Framework

Treat this one as a signal. GOV.UK says the Advanced Nuclear Framework pipeline serves privately led advanced nuclear projects and is neither a funding mechanism nor a procurement tool.

To be eligible, a project must use land-based, non-mobile fission technology, meaning SMRs, advanced modular reactors or micro modular reactors. It must also be aiming for a mainland site in England or Wales.

Proposals opened on 4 March 2026 and, as of October 2026, stay open on a rolling basis. For a manufacturer, the framework is a watch list. The developers who join it are the names to follow.

What to do next for each opportunity

Where you start depends on what you make and where you are.

If your product is used on a construction site, such as materials, temporary works, access equipment or site services, start with Sizewell C. That work is being bought now, and the awarded contracts register already names the tier 1s.

If you make machined parts or fabricated assemblies that could end up inside a factory-built module, put Rolls-Royce SMR and Wylfa first, and accept a longer wait before the first order.

If you are within reach of a site, start local. A shared region gives the first message a natural reason to exist.

Pick one and stay with it. Each row in the table needs its own list, its own proof and its own timing.

How do buying routes work through tier 1 and tier 2 contractors?

EDF's Hinkley page names three routes in. A supplier can work directly for EDF, for one of its key delivery partners, or for one of those partners' subcontractors. The work it lists runs from plant hire to waste management to building materials.

Direct to the owner. This route is realistic for specialist items or services the owner keeps under its own control. The portal and the engagement team are the front door, and the owner's procurement function runs the process.

Through a tier 1. This is the common route for manufacturers whose products go into a package. The tier 1 chooses suppliers to deliver its own contract against its own schedule.

Through a tier 2. Here you sell into a subcontractor's scope. These firms are often closer to your size, and have fewer layers between you and the person who decides.

The decision rule is simple. If your product is a line item inside a tier 1 package, your first target is that tier 1's package team. If it is a component of what a subcontractor supplies, target the subcontractor. Go to the owner directly only when the owner buys your category itself.

What should a manufacturer prepare before outreach?

I always start by asking a manufacturer for the list of who bought from them recently and who signed each order. Then I look for companies that resemble those buyers in size, structure and the kind of project they deliver.

For a manufacturer moving toward nuclear, orders from major contractors on large UK infrastructure are the best starting evidence you have. Go back through those projects and find out who really decided on each one.

When my team builds a target list, we build it around the real buying titles for that niche, never a broad "manager" filter, and we strip out assistants, associates and generic managers before the first message goes out.

For tier 1 packages, the titles worth testing first are package manager, head of procurement, supply chain director and the commercial lead on the package. Confirm each one against your own closed deals before you trust it.

The list does more work than the message. When campaigns fail, I find the cause in the spreadsheet far more often than in the copy.

It is worth reading why your list usually matters more than your email before you write a word.

Then gather your proof. I want a manufacturer's delivered projects inside the message itself, with the site, the contractor type and the outcome.

Show what you have done, where you did it and who you did it for. Do not present construction work as nuclear experience you do not have.

Before the first message, have these ready:

1. Your recent orders from large contractors, each with the buyer's title and the project type
2. A short map of which title signs at which company size
3. A target list: tier 1s from the Sizewell C awarded contracts register, the subcontractors under them, and the fabricators Rolls-Royce SMR engages if SMR work is your aim
4. One case study per segment, written as project, site, scope and result
5. Your portal registrations, completed, so a buyer who looks you up finds you there
6. A decision on whether a Fit For Nuclear assessment is worth doing for your category
7. One clear first ask, a short call about the next phase, and nothing bigger

Leave out the shortcuts. Do not buy a scraped list of "energy industry" contacts, and do not email the owner's general inbox hoping it gets forwarded.

Which requirements decide when a nuclear project can buy?

Your own qualification, such as the quality system and certifications a buyer expects, depends on the buyer and the package, so ask the tier 1 what it requires for your category before you quote. The Nuclear Industry Association says almost 100 companies have been through its Fit For Nuclear assessment, and that those firms can now compete for nuclear work.

The requirements that shape the market's timing are the ones the project itself has to clear. They decide when anyone can buy.

According to the World Nuclear Association's UK profile, a project needs several formal approvals before construction:

• a Generic Design Assessment of the reactor design
• a site licence from the Office for Nuclear Regulation
• a development consent order from the Planning Inspectorate
• a funded plan that prices the eventual shutdown and the handling of waste

The Advanced Nuclear Framework adds its own horizon: projects in the pipeline aim to start construction within 10 years of joining.

An owner cannot buy most things until approvals and financing are in place. A tier 1 cannot order until its package is awarded. So demand arrives in waves, tied to milestones you can watch from the outside.

Some markets simply decide slowly, and a pipeline that looks quiet may only be getting started.

When I plan a campaign in a slow market, I expect two curves. Conversations rise first. Revenue trails behind by however long the buyer's own process takes.

That is why outbound should start before the contract window opens. If you begin when the package is advertised, you are introducing yourself on the same day the buyer is choosing.

How should lead generation work for nuclear suppliers?

Portals and supplier events are worth doing, and nobody should skip them. But both run on someone else's schedule. Direct outreach on LinkedIn and by email runs on yours: you pick the people and the timing.

I give every client the same order: talk to people first, let the calls grow from those talks, and let the clients grow from the calls. In a market that buys on milestones, that order matters more than usual.

So set a monthly target for conversations started with the right titles, and count calls booked second. A conversation with a package manager well before an award is worth more than a rushed call after it.

The market is small, so work it deep: several decision-makers per tier 1, a longer sequence for each, and patience measured in quarters. Getting the decision-maker right counts for more here than raw volume, because you cannot replace a lost tier 1 with a fresh one.

Trust has to be visible before anyone replies. A procurement head at a tier 1 is likely to look at the sender's LinkedIn profile and your company before answering, so make sure that profile shows your delivered projects before the first message arrives.

I have no nuclear case to show. What I can say is that outreach reaches large contractors, suppliers and energy groups when it names the package and the sender's relevant work.

What does a good nuclear supplier outreach sequence look like?

Open on LinkedIn, then let email continue a conversation that has already started there.

Keep every step short and written the way a person talks.

Every message asks for a meeting, never for an order.

Here is a worked example with a made-up company: a steel fabricator in East Anglia that builds modular access platforms. It has found, on the Sizewell C awarded contracts register, a tier 1 whose package will need temporary access on site.

1. LinkedIn connection request to the package manager, with a one-line note naming the package
2. First LinkedIn message after acceptance: one proof line from a comparable UK infrastructure project, then one question
3. Email follow-up a few days later, picking up from the LinkedIn message
4. Second follow-up with a short case study: the project, the site, the scope and the result
5. Third follow-up after a real gap, asking when the team will fix suppliers for the next phase
6. A second contact at the same tier 1, such as the head of procurement, with a version written for that role

The first LinkedIn message can be this short:

"Hi Sarah, saw your team picked up a package at Sizewell C. We make modular access platforms for large civil sites in the East of England, most recently for a main contractor on a long UK infrastructure program. Would a 15-minute call make sense before you fix suppliers for the next phase?"

That message names her package, gives one proof line and asks for a call about timing.

A few rules for the first campaign:

1. If someone redirects you to a colleague, contact that colleague the same day and mention who sent you.
2. If someone says "not until next year," log the date and set a reminder. In this market, that counts as a good answer.
3. If a contact accepts the request but never replies, finish the sequence anyway. Later steps often land after the earlier ones were missed.

How do you know if your nuclear outbound is working?

Month one brings feedback, and contracts come much later. You learn which titles answer, which forward you on and which segments stay silent, and that learning is what the first month is for. For a stage-by-stage picture of that early stretch, see how the first three months of outbound tend to unfold.

Measure these from week one:

1. Acceptance rate among the titles you targeted
2. Replies, sorted into right person, redirect, and no
3. Conversations started, counted against your monthly target
4. Calls booked
5. Named next dates, such as "talk to me when the package is awarded"

Two warnings. First, if a small, well-built batch produces no conversations at all, sending more will not fix it. A funnel that fails at small numbers fails at large ones too.

Second, getting calls booked and winning orders are separate skills. A full calendar does not prove that your follow-up after the call works.

Keep or drop a segment like this:

1. Right titles reply, but the timing is far away. Keep the segment and stay in touch.
2. Replies mostly come from the wrong people or redirects. Rebuild the title filter and the account list first; leave the wording alone for now.
3. Silence after the full sequence. Check the sender's profile and the first ask before you blame the market.
4. You have reached every tier 1 and subcontractor worth reaching. Move to the next row in the opportunity table instead of mailing the same people again.

Here is a checkpoint for your first 90 days. You should be able to name the tier 1s that talk to you, the titles that answer, and the project milestone each of their orders depends on. If you cannot name all three, go back to the buyer map and fix the level you are targeting.

If you make parts or equipment for UK nuclear sites and are not sure which tier 1 package teams to reach before tender, book a call and we can go through your list.