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Sky News
6 hours ago
- Business
- Sky News
Why the UK has warmed up to nuclear power again
Why you can trust Sky News For years nuclear was a dirty word. Now, the tide is turning. For the past 20 years or so, global nuclear power has stagnated amid concerns about its environmental damage and its safety after the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters. Another nail in its coffin appeared to be its appalling record of delays and spiralling costs, while wind and solar plummeted in price and soared in supply. But leaders are warming up to nuclear power again, driven by a few key trends. First and foremost, they are anxious to keep pace with booming demand for low-carbon energy, driven by an explosion of data centres and the switch to electric cars and heat pumps. Datacentres for AI and cloud computing not only have a voracious appetite for energy, but as they operate 24/7, they need a steady, reliable stream. Enter: nuclear, which can provide this most of the time. The 'flat pack' power plant Secondly, a new type of nuclear power plant may finally be on the horizon. The much vaunted small modular reactors (SMRs) promise to be much faster and cheaper to build than something like Hinkley Point, because the parts can be built in a factory and assembled on site - the flat pack furniture of nuclear power. They have long been celebrated but have failed to scale up. So far they exist only in Russia and China. Nevertheless, industry and political leaders in other countries are confident their own SMR designs are almost ready to go, and the government on Tuesday said it wants Rolls-Royce to get the UK's first SMRs online "in the 2030s". That's most likely another 10 years from now, so a mid-term solution, with much more clean power is needed in the meantime. It also announced £14bn for Sizewell C, continuing plans for a nuclear revival started by the Tories. Beyond the UK, leaders in the US, Canada, South Korea and France and even Japan - which suffered the 2011 Fukushima disaster - and Germany - which famously detests nuclear - are warming up to it again. And so are businesses - last year Google became the first company to sign an agreement to buy nuclear energy from Kairos Power's SMRs to power its data centres. Just last week Meta did the same with Constellation Energy. As for traditional big plants, some are now being built on time and on budget, such as Barakah in the UAE. The South Korean company behind it is in talks to build the same type in the UK. Safety concerns switch from disaster to climate Thirdly, countries are trying to get off fossil fuels to fend off worse climate change. Nuclear power is very low carbon, and it is also safer than many fear. Death rates from air pollution and accidents are lower from nuclear power than from any energy form other than solar power, research by data scientists at Oxford University's Our World in Data project suggest. Nuclear power also has the lowest greenhouse gas emissions of any energy form over its lifespan, and cancer rates from accidents can be mitigated by robust responses, the scientists said. The undeniable price tag That's not to say nuclear does no damage, and the government's announcement on Tuesday glossed over what it will do with the radioactive waste. Sizewell C has been very unpopular with some local campaign groups that protest its local damage to trees, birds and coastline, and they recently launched a fresh legal challenge to additional flood barriers. Traditional large reactors like Sizewell have also been eye-wateringly expensive and slow to build, and must be routinely taken offline for maintenance. Critics argue that solar and wind power, backed up by batteries, are faster, cheaper and safer. Others want the money to be spent on reducing demand for power in the first place by insulating homes. But societies and leaders are slowly becoming less concerned about nuclear disasters and other environmental impacts, and much more worried about climate change and reliable energy supplies - as crystallised by the 2022 energy crisis and recent mass power outage in Spain and Portugal.
Times
21 hours ago
- Business
- Times
Taxpayer to spend billions more on Sizewell C nuclear plant
Ministers have agreed to take a £17.8 billion stake in the Sizewell C nuclear power plant in a move that they claim will reduce carbon emissions and even make money for the taxpayer. Under plans announced by Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, the government will increase its investment in the project by £14.2 billion over the next three years on top of £3.6 billion of public money committed under the Conservatives. Further funding will come from the French energy group EDF, which is building the plant, as well as private infrastructure investors. Whitehall sources said ministers decided to take a larger stake because they were confident it would provide a significant return to the taxpayer. Under the funding model, investors carry all the risk of cost overruns but are paid back through consumer bills and can make more money if the project comes in on time and on budget. A plant with the same design being built by EDF at Hinkley Point has run billions of pounds over budget and is not expected to open before the early 2030s, more than five years late. The company said it had learnt lessons from Hinkley, in Somerset, and can build Sizewell C, in Suffolk, faster and more cheaply. However, it is still likely to cost much more than the estimated £20 billion in 2020 and will not produce power for at least another decade. The total cost will be set out this summer when external private investors are announced. Ultimately, the project will be paid for via consumers' electricity bills, adding about £1 a month to the cost of power over the 60-year lifespan of the plant. The announcement is among investments in nuclear at the spending review as part of the government's pledge to decarbonise electricity supplies and cope with growing demand. The Stop Sizewell C campaign group claimed that the government had not been honest about the full cost of the project ALAMY Ministers will also set out proposals to kick-start a generation of small modular reactors that supporters claim can be built faster and more cheaply than traditional plants. The government is expected to back a design developed by Rolls-Royce. Sources said the total government investment would be in the low billions of pounds. There will also be £2.5 billion for research and development into fusion energy to unlock the technology on a commercial scale. The new money will be seen as a win for Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, who fought with the Treasury for significant capital investment in the government's clean energy goal. The development comes despite concerns in government about the financial and political cost of net zeroas both the Tories and Reform are pledging to rethink the UK's climate pledges. Miliband said that it showed the government would 'not accept the status quo of failing to invest in the future and energy insecurity for our country', adding: 'We need new nuclear to deliver a golden age of clean energy abundance. That is the only way to protect family finances, take back control of our energy and tackle the climate crisis.' • We're standing behind net zero despite the sceptics Trade unions welcomed the move, which the Treasury said would go towards creating 10,000 jobs, including 1,500 apprenticeships. The GMB union said it was 'momentous'. Warren Kenny, the regional secretary, said: 'Sizewell C will provide thousands of good, skilled, unionised jobs and we look forward to … help secure a greener future.' Alison Downes, of Stop Sizewell C, the campaign group, said ministers had not 'come clean' about the full cost of the project, which the group previously estimated could be as much as £40 billion. 'Where is the benefit for voters in ploughing more money into Sizewell C that could be spent on other priorities, and when the project will add to consumer bills and is guaranteed to be late and overspent, like Hinkley C? 'Ministers have still not come clean about Sizewell C's cost … Starmer and Reeves have signed up to HS2 mark 2.'
