nuclear-news

Parliamentary Committee calls for clear direction on Oldbury and Wylfa, and a “one-stop shop” to finally overcome excessive cost and delays in deployment of nuclear energy

  House of Commons Energy Security and Net Zero Committee, 24 October 2025

In a report today the Commons Energy Security and Net Zero Committee says new planning guidance for building Britain’s future nuclear energy generation brings a welcome ‘presumption of consent’ for low-carbon generation across a range of nuclear technologies.

• Read the report [HTML]
• Read the report [PDF]

But the UK’s move into unprecedented territory of private development of new nuclear sites creates new challenges. The Committee is concerned that the “exhaustive” drafting of the criteria in EN‑7, intended to introduce the flexibility to consider a wide range of factors towards approval, may in fact just duplicate issues also addressed by specialist regulators and create more uncertainty, delay and cost.   

It concludes that new policy statement EN-7 “fails to present a truly joined-up approach across planning, safety, and environmental regulation” and so risks undermining its own purpose: to provide a definitive and coherent framework for decision-making.  Commercial developers, facing a front-loaded application system and potential review both by multiple regulators and in Court, may be driven to “gold plate” applications with excessive detail.  ……………………………………………………………………………… https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/664/energy-security-and-net-zero-committee/news/209808/committee-calls-for-clear-direction-on-oldbury-and-wylfa-and-a-onestop-shop-to-finally-overcome-excessive-cost-and-delays-in-deployment-of-nuclear-energy/

October 25, 2025 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, UK