From English to Energy: powering a new future

Julia Pyke (1986) serves as the Joint Managing Director of Sizewell C, Britain’s largest nuclear project to date. Before joining Sizewell C, Julia was the Head of Power and Renewables for the UK, US, and Europe at Herbert Smith Freehills LLP, where she led a team advising on power projects, focusing on defence, nuclear decommissioning, and transport sectors.

She is a Fellow of the Energy Institute and an Honorary Fellow of the Nuclear Institute. Clare News caught up with her about her experiences to date and her mission to stabilise the UK’s energy sources.

How did you move from Law to the world of renewable energy?

I read English and then did a fourth year law conversion course, largely because I wanted to carry on singing in Clare Choir rather than because of any burning passion for the law. But having started down the law road I discovered I was interested in it, and qualified, then focused on infrastructure projects as a partner at Herbert Smith Freehills. My work included wind, biomass, the Swansea Bay tidal lagoon – and Hinkley Point C (which took ten years of paperwork before construction started). After that, I decided that the most useful thing I could do for the imperative needs the UK has for energy security, abundant energy, and to wean ourselves off fossil fuels, was to help develop another nuclear power station. So I joined the Sizewell C project, initially as Development Director and now Joint Managing Director.

Julia Pyke

Tell us about your latest role as Joint Managing
Director of Sizewell C.

Leading a mega project like Sizewell C is a huge privilege: our strapline is “To do the Power of Good for Britain”, which translates into our mission to provide a lot of very low carbon reliable electricity while building skills for the UK, helping to improve local infrastructure, raising aspirations and offering good jobs to people in the UK. We have around 1500 staff, and at peak we will have between 7000 and 8000 people from the supply chain working on the site. I am very keen that we deliver Sizewell C on time and budget and break the preconceptions about new nuclear… and we have the huge advantage of copying the detailed design for Hinkley Point C to help us. We have an approach to our team which is inclusive and focussed on reducing barriers to work, such as providing childcare, (possibly even dog day care!) and on building community within the Sizewell C team and the people who live in the local area.

The job is creative: we are creating a new power station, while innovating both technically and in the way we make work more attractive to people. Sizewell C is a new economic model and will be co-owned between Government, incoming strategic and financial investors and EDF. We hope this will prove a great model for future projects as it balances UK Government presence – which in a critical industry such as nuclear is welcome – with the commercial experience of the incoming investors and the technical expertise in nuclear
of EDF.

I enjoy the creative aspect of the job – taking an idea and making it a reality – and I very much enjoy building the team, talking to the young people in the local schools and those who are starting their careers, and setting a culture with a shared sense of mission to get Sizewell C into operation.

How does nuclear power compare to renewable energy sources in terms of long-term viability?

Nuclear has different qualities to renewables and is an important part of the energy system, alongside renewables, in industrialised countries which have little capacity for large scale hydro or geothermal. Nuclear has the lowest lifecycle carbon content and, according to Our World in Data (and many other sources) is one of the safest ways of making electricity.

It is also great for UK growth – it lowers electricity bills, and we have 90% UK content through the life of the power station. We create good jobs and upskill thousands of people through the construction phase and have a well-paid workforce through the (at least) 60-year operating life. We also have a very small footprint – to make the same amount of electricity as Sizewell C from solar or onshore wind requires many times more land.

We are planning to produce heat for industrial use as well as electricity and have been working with partners including Birmingham University on a new heat-based Direct Air Capture technology. If the prototype tests establish that it works as hoped, it will significantly reduce the costs per tonne of carbon captured.

Sometimes the media presents renewables and nuclear as being in competition. They are not: we have a growing need for electricity, including to power data centres (around 25% of Ireland’s electricity is currently going to power data centres). Our current fleet of nuclear power stations built in the 1970s and 1980s is shutting down because they have reached the end of their lives, and we need at least to replace them.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far in this role?

The biggest challenge is changing perceptions about nuclear – it’s a great industry to work in, doing something really useful for society. There was an article in the Economist a couple of years ago which said that if nuclear had been built out as planned pre-Chernobyl then there would be no climate change – imagine all the lives and environmental damage saved if that had become reality, rather than the near shut-down of the nuclear new build programme, now being revived internationally. Perceptions are changing – in particular, the recent interest expressed by energy hungry data centres in nuclear power has shifted the narrative. There is a marked difference in support for nuclear between men and women, and I hope that the increasing numbers of women in the industry, which has historically been very male dominated, will help change this. Sizewell C now has an executive team which is 65% female.

Do you feel your experience at Clare had an impact on your career? If so, in what way?

Yes, very much so. I went to a comprehensive where it was easy to float along by virtue of having educated and supportive parents rather than through any hard work of my own. I didn’t learn the connection between hard work and achievement until I was at Clare, and in particular through my years in Clare Choir with Tim Brown. The qualities taught about effort and reward, team work, being prepared, success resulting from listening and collective effort are very valuable in building infrastructure. Seeing how people are motivated by someone taking an interest in them, rather than telling them to do things, is something I learned both from the choir and from my English degree, and which I try to put into practice in my role at Sizewell C. My time at Clare also instilled a sense of how very fortunate I am to have had this opportunity, which resulted in lifelong friendships.

Can you share one of your favourite memories from your time at Clare?

The rhythm of choir rehearsals and evensongs bringing order and peace to what could otherwise be quite frenetic. Being with friends: in the gardens, on the river, at the May Balls. And a surprising amount of time spent watching Neighbours. I enjoyed my English degree and particularly enjoyed studying American literature with Richard Gooder.

Are you still in contact with fellow alumni from Clare?

Yes, I regularly see my ‘not choir’ friends – two of whom, Sarah Beardsall and Esther Alderson, are in this picture of ‘big hair on the bridge’ (and consented to my sending it in!). I sing for Tim Brown whenever I have the chance, and he has very kindly agreed to lead a choir in Sizewell C, which is really helping us get out of ‘work persona’ to show our human side to each other, and, with Rosalind Parker – (fellow Clare Choir alumna) – leading Sizewell Creative which is working with schools, community, workforce and arts groups to offer inclusive productions, exhibitions and more. Another alumnus, Iain Smedley, is the lead banker for the Government in the Sizewell C capital raise, and a number of Clare students have done summer internships with us.

Julia with friends at Clare