nuclear-news

The Tories are overwhelmingly pro-nuclear, but their reasons for this stance don’t add up.

Figure 1: Attitudes to nuclear power by party [Source: YouGov, 2012] Now many in the party will claim, oh that’s because we want “value for money” with the least government involvement. Of course the reality is that nuclear energy is very expensive. And most of the companies involved in this industry are state owned (or count the govumint as their main if not only customer).

Figure 2: LCoE costs for Hinkley C compared to German Renewables [Source: energytransition.de 2015] Any future UK nuclear reactors will be built by foreign mulitnationals that are owned by foreign governments, so its difficult to conclude nuclear power will be less subject to the whims of events in foreign countries. The approval or disapproval of Hinkley C is essentially a decision that will be taken by…