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The Sir John Armitt interview: ‘I’m not sure the government is really serious about nuclear’.

 At the age of 77 and with the successful delivery
of the Olympics under his belt, Sir John Armitt is not one to pull his
punches. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was wrong to cancel HS2 in the way that
he did, is daft to sell off the project’s land almost certainly at a
loss, is not serious about nuclear power, has misjudged renewable energy
and has imperilled the UK’s climate change targets, says the country’s
infrastructure tsar.

And that’s not even the full charge sheet. The
National Infrastructure Commission (NIC), which Sir Armitt chairs, has just
published their latest assessment on major long-term challenges, which
includes a series of bold policy recommendations directed to the
government, like shutting down Britain’s gas network and spending
billions to roll out heat pumps.

Nuclear is another area where Sir Armitt
– who worked on delivering the Sizewell B station – believes the
government needs to act faster: “At the moment, we’re not making any
progress really on Sizewell C, there is no deal being done with EDF… so
we don’t see nuclear as really having a significant part to play in any
new stations other than Hinkley before 2035. “I would say I’m not sure
the government’s really serious about nuclear.” To his mind, it is a
commercial deal, and – if you were serious – you would “sit down and
thrash something out”, not “leave it to drift”.

 Politics Home 19th Nov 2023

https://www.politicshome.com/thehouse/article/national-infrastructure-interview-sir-john-armitt-rail-nuclear-climate

November 20, 2023 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, UK