NUCLEAR FOR BRITAIN

NUCNET - 15 March 2022 - UK prime minister Boris Johnson said the country must make “big new bets” on developing new nuclear power stations to end the nation’s “addiction” to Russian oil and gas. 

Mr Johnson is doe to unveil an energy security strategy later this month which will set out how the country will achieve energy independence. 

The document will have a major focus on increasing the roll-out of renewable energy sources as the government remains committed to its net zero emissions by 2050 target. 

But it will also push for the development of more nuclear power capability, including through small modular reactors as well as larger power stations.
Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Mr Johnson said Russia’s president Vladimir Putin knew when he launched his invasion of Ukraine that “the world would find it very hard to punish him” because he had “created an addiction” to Russian energy. 

Mr Johnson said “we cannot go on like this” as he repeated his calls for the West to wean itself off Russian oil and gas. 

He said green energy is “invulnerable to Putin’s manipulations” but “we also need baseload energy – power that can be relied upon when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing”. 

“So now is the time to make a series of big new bets on nuclear power,” he said. 

In January UK government ministers added further support to EDF Energy’s £20bn Sizewell C nuclear power station project in Suffolk, southeast England, with a £100m investment to help develop the project while the company looks for private investors. 

The latest support emerged months after the government put forward legislation to create a new funding regulated asset base (RAB) model to help the project attract investment at a lower cost than the Hinkley Point C project. 

The RAB model will see will see households paying an upfront levy through their bills to help lower overall costs. Press reports in the UK have put this at between £10 and £15 a year on the average energy bill for 35 years. 

These payments from the start of construction will avoid the build-up of interest on loans that would otherwise lead to higher costs to consumers in the future. 

In October, the government announced funding of £1.7bn in Sizewell C as it pushes to replace the country’s aging reactor fleet. 

Most of the UK’s existing fleet of 11 reactors, which supply about 15% of the country’s electricity, are being retired this decade, with the last one due to close in 2035. Earlier this month, Hunterston B-2 in Scotland became the latest to be permanently shut down. Hunterston B-1 was shut down in November 2021. 

EDF is building Hinkley Point C in Somerset, the only new nuclear plant in the UK. Three projects – Wylfa, Moorside and Oldbury – have either been cancelled or shelved, largely because of financing problems, while Bradwell remains in the early technical stages. 

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