Welcome to The Blueprint – Your monthly science and technology newsletter
The Blueprint | No. 01.2025
Welcome to The Blueprint, our new monthly roundup of science and technology. Written and edited by Dr Mann Virdee.
Thoughts from your correspondent on recent developments in science and tech in the United Kingdom (UK)
Labour is getting the message on growth, but there’s still work to do.
Since the start of this year, His Majesty’s (HM) Government has made several promising announcements to drive growth and innovation in the United Kingdom (UK). That’s a marked contrast to the timidity of their first six months in office. It’s as if Labour lost their plan for government on entering office and have just found it.
Recent announcements have included the Oxford-Cambridge corridor, new reservoirs, Heathrow’s third runway, the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Opportunities Action Plan, and a nuclear regulatory task force to speed up Small Modular Reactor (SMR) development.
The rhetoric is commendable. Sir Keir Starmer, Prime Minister, has vowed to take on ‘the Nimbys and a broken system that has slowed down our progress as a nation’, while Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer, has said ‘we were once a world pioneer in new nuclear – and we can be again.’ But until the work begins and people feel their lives and communities improving, the rhetoric is not enough. People have been let down time and again, and they are rightly wary of big promises.
So, what’s behind all these new announcements?
One big reason is that a pro-growth coalition is mobilising, which is effectively demonstrating the benefits of these proposals. This coalition includes (but is not limited to) groups and organisations such as Britain Remade, Labour Growth Group, Looking for Growth, Onward, Startup Coalition, Council on Geostrategy, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, UK Day One, and the YIMBY Alliance.
But for those who care about Britain’s prosperity, the work continues. Severe problems with the planning system and infrastructure will not go away easily.
Only recently, we learned that planning inspectors recommended against a nuclear power plant in Anglesey, north Wales, because of fears it could dilute the Welsh language and culture on the island. It sounds too absurd to be true. That follows the widely shared news that the High Speed II railway line included a £100 million tunnel to protect bats from trains, which may ultimately not even be bat-proof anyway. These should be reminders of how far Britain is falling behind.
Britain’s plutonium puzzle
Too often, HM Government is still getting the calls wrong – and so there is work to do to help highlight where and how they can improve.
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) recently announced that the UK will dispose of its civil plutonium stockpile, which amounts to some 140 tonnes. This decision will not have been taken lightly and is more complex than armchair commentators appreciate. But there are legitimate reasons to believe it is the wrong decision while other options may still be on the table.
The plutonium reserve is around 3,100 terawatt hours (TWh), enough to – theoretically – meet the UK’s entire energy demands for about three years. Of course, the UK’s energy system is complex and this plutonium cannot simply be plugged in somewhere to power the whole thing, as these commentators appear to believe. But the plutonium could be used as fuel for thermal reactors, or combined with depleted, natural and low-enriched uranium to fuel new fast reactors.
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority carried out technical, deliverability and economic analysis for the plutonium – including looking at immobilisation and reuse as mixed oxide fuel (MOX) – and recommended immobilisation as the preferred solution.
But the fact remains that this is a highly valuable national resource. It is worth investing in continued storage so that the UK can further explore options for reusing the plutonium before putting it permanently out of reach.
Technological innovations, developments and stories you might have missed
Green light for gene-edited pig kidneys for human use
Two biotech companies in the United States (US), United Therapeutics and eGenesis, have received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration to begin clinical trials for gene-edited pig kidneys for human use. If successful, this development could be a lifeline for those waiting for organ transplants.
Large-scale laser fusion research centre in the People’s Republic of China
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is constructing a large-scale laser fusion research centre in Mianyang, Sichuan province. The facility could be used for research on both clean energy and nuclear weapons. Inertial confinement fusion generates small fusion reactions and could lead to clean and abundant energy. But such a facility could also be used to explore, test, and refine nuclear weapon designs without conducting actual nuclear tests, which are banned under the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
World’s first scalable, connected, photonic quantum computer prototype
A team of engineers and physicists at Xanadu Quantum Technologies Inc., a Canadian company, has unveiled what they describe as the world’s first scalable, connected, photonic quantum computer prototype.
Accumulation of microplastics in the human brain
American researchers analysed samples of brain, liver and kidney tissue of 28 people who died in 2016 and compared it with samples from 24 people who died in 2024. They found that the accumulation of micro- and nano-plastics was higher in the samples from 2024. Further research is needed to better understand the health and neurological impacts.
High-Energy Laser test by US Navy
The US Navy has reported on testing of their High-Energy Laser with Integrated Optical Dazzler and Surveillance (HELIOS) system. The laser was used to take out an aerial drone, a key step in operationalising such systems.
Your reading list on science and technology
National Priority Infrastructure Bill - Looking for Growth
An ‘oven-ready’ bill aimed by the campaign group Looking for Growth which seeks to liberalise infrastructure planning in Britain, endorsed by figures across the political spectrum.
Ensuring that the UK can capture the benefits of quantum computing - Oxford Economics, commissioned by IBM and Oxford Quantum Circuits
This report predicts that quantum computing could give Britain an economy-wide productivity boost of up to 8.3% by 2055, with initial gains from as early as 2034. Unsurprisingly, the report argues that increased government support for quantum will be crucial for the UK to realise the benefits and remain globally competitive.
Managing the UK plutonium stockpile: no easy choices - William Bodel, Adrian Bull, Gregg Butler, Robert Harrison, Juan Matthews and Daniel Warrilow-Brennan, University of Manchester
This study from the University of Manchester’s Dalton Nuclear Institute explores Britain’s choices for what to do with its plutonium stockpile (see Colossus). The report notes that if the plutonium stockpile is disposed, it would be expected to reach an earlier end point and involve less initial cost. However, as fuel, it would generate significant quantities of low-carbon energy for the UK.
On DeepSeek and Export Controls - Dario Amodei, Anthropic
An essay on Deepseek, the future of AI, and the necessity of US export controls. In this piece, Amodei argues that DeepSeek produced a model with performance similar to US models 7-10 months older at a significantly lower cost, but not at the extreme ratios some have suggested. For some pushback and the value of open-source innovation, read a response by Thomas Wolf, co-founder of Hugging Face.
The inside story of Britain’s failure to clinch £450mn AstraZeneca deal - Anna Gross, Hannah Kuchler, George Parker and Jennifer Williams, Financial Times
The story of how AstraZeneca scrapped its planned UK vaccine plant expansion after failing to reach a financially viable agreement with the government, citing reduced funding offers and unfavourable economic conditions.
Revealing quotes
‘Build baby build’ – Sir Keir.
Labour has pledged to ‘back the builders, not the blockers’ by reforming the UK’s planning system to build houses, build national infrastructure projects and grow the economy. However, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) predicts Labour will miss its target of 1.5 million new homes in England by the end of this Parliament, and end up some 400,000 short of their manifesto commitment. See also, ‘drill, baby, drill’ – a Republican rallying cry for energy policy for over a decade and – more recently – a mantra embraced by Donald Trump, President of the US.
‘They don’t actually have the money’ – Elon Musk, in a reply to OpenAI’s press release on the Stargate AI project announced by Trump.
Keep an eye on how the relationship between the world’s richest man and the US President holds up when Musk’s competitors – in this case Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI – take the spotlight.
See also, ‘no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want’ – Sam Altman, in reply to an offer of $97.4 billion by a Musk-led consortium offers to take control of OpenAI. This offer complicates Altman’s plans to turn OpenAI into a for-profit company.
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