nuclear-news

Boris Johnson’s legacy of the nuclear fantasy

In response to the Prime Minister pledging £700 million of public money to
build a nuclear power station at Sizewell, Dr Doug Parr, Chief Scientist
for Greenpeace UK, said – “This money could insulate huge numbers of
draughty homes, and cut next year’s bills, instead of being thrown onto the
slow-burning financial bonfire that is EDF, to increase our bills for
decades.

Construction of this reactor type has gone massively over budget
and over schedule whenever they try to build it in Europe, and isn’t
operating as advertised anywhere. The funding model adopted to pay for it
was tried in the USA, and North Carolina households are still paying for a
nuclear reactor that was never built as the company went bust.

The contrast between these lumbering white elephants and the dynamic, cost cutting,
innovative technologies in the renewables sector could barely be more
striking. While this down payment on failure shows the government hasn’t
noticed, the market has, and investors have fled the nuclear sector.

To get Sizewell done, the government would have to step in and add the enormous
costs of building reactors to the enormous costs consumers are already
paying for their electricity. While Boris Island and the Boris Bridge
remain in the land of fantasy where they belong, Johnson will have his
legacy, the Boris Bill, and it will be very real for a very long time.”

Greenpeace 1st Sept 2022 https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/press-centre/

September 2, 2022 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, UK