nuclear-news

The News That Matters about the Nuclear Industry Fukushima Chernobyl Mayak Three Mile Island Atomic Testing Radiation Isotope

“No regrets” as UK government portrays nuclear power as “clean” and “green”

 Nuclear power to get ‘green’ status as Britain races EU to hit net
zero. Move is part of a bid to unlock billions of pounds of funding for
more power stations. Nuclear power projects such as Sizewell C in Suffolk
will be granted so-called “green” status under plans by Jeremy Hunt to
unlock billions of pounds in funding for the industry. The Chancellor is
expected to announce the change within weeks as part of a broader shake-up
of the UK’s financial rules on green energy.

It would see nuclear power
projects classed as “green” or “sustainable” investments, clearing
the way for more institutional investors and environment-focused funds to
back them. There are also hopes that the Treasury could fund new power
plants with money raised through the Government’s green gilts and green
savings bonds. Generating nuclear power does not produce carbon dioxide, [ if you ignore the total nuclear fuel chain] so the sector is seen as a key plank of Britain’s plans to reach net zero
emissions by 2050.

A recent review by former energy minister and Tory MP
Chris Skidmore said that supporting the construction of more nuclear
reactors was a “no regrets” option. However, the sector has faced
difficulties portraying itself as environmentally friendly in the past
because of concerns about nuclear waste, water usage, and the remote but
catastrophic risk of nuclear accidents. Top fund managers such as Legal &
General and Aviva have previously expressed caution about the green
credentials of nuclear, with Aviva chairman George Culmer last year saying
there was an “ongoing debate”.

 Telegraph 14th Feb 2023

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/02/14/nuclear-power-now-green-britain-races-eu-hit-net-zero/

February 15, 2023 Posted by | climate change, politics, UK | Leave a comment

Scotland’s campaign groups call on government to reject plans for nuclear power at new Green Freeports.

 NORTH campaigners have called on the Scottish Government to reject plans
to build nuclear plants at the country’s two new Green Freeports.

 John O’Groat Journal 14th Feb 2023

https://www.johnogroat-journal.co.uk/news/call-for-scottish-government-to-reject-plans-to-build-nuclea-303332/

 THE convener of Scotland’s nuclear-free local authorities (NFLAs) has
written to Net Zero Minister Michael Matheson asking him to reject nuclear
power at Scotland’s two new green freeports.

 The National 15th Feb 2023

https://www.thenational.scot/news/23322143.nuclear-power-freeports-greenwashing-scottish-minister-told/

February 15, 2023 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, UK | Leave a comment

Signs of madness? —in the rarefied air of the British Parliament, Westinghouse spouts nuclear lies, without being challenged

Rarified (hot) air in halls of power is filled with propaganda

Fortunately, the gallery was under a mandatory code of silence, for it was hard not to emit a gasp of incredulity when the Westinghouse executive announced that his company had been “smashing production records” around the world.

Westinghouse has indeed broken some things: the law, and the bank for starters. But production records? He also mentioned that nuclear was “clean, reliable, dependable power” the very things it is not.

Signs of madness? — Beyond Nuclear International

Decisions on nuclear future are guided by myths

By Linda Pentz Gunter 12 Feb 23

Last month I rushed through the august halls of the British parliament in Westminster, on my way to a briefing on small modular reactors for Members of the Welsh Affairs Select Committee.

Running late though I was, it was tempting to slow down and take in all the historic portraits and portals as I hurried down flagstoned hallways, through heavy oak doors and finally into the richly carpeted committee room. But the albeit fleeting impression all of this left was of a world completely isolated from the reality of the daily struggles most of us endure. The rarified air was almost suffocating.

This became even more apparent as, unwillingly gagged, I listened to testimony from executives representing Westinghouse, Bechtel and Rolls Royce. One unsubstantiated sound bite after another tumbled from the mouths of these corporate executives, all serving their rich agenda of vested interests (read shareholders and profits).

But the questions they faced, at least from the Conservative nuclear cheerleaders present, were mainly mild softballs. Give us the soundbite, they urged. What do we need to tell the government to do to make all this happen?

Even Labour MP, Beth Winter, while challenging them on the obvious detriments of small modular, or any, reactors — time and cost — given, as she pointed out, climate change is very much here now, politely did not expose their utter hypocrisy. It was, after all, not a room in which arguing was on the agenda. 

The Rolls Royce response was to trot out the “we need to do everything” mantra, which is what nuclear companies have to say in order for their technology to stand any chance at all. In reality, it is clear that choosing nuclear cancels out renewables. Meanwhile, Rolls Royce has pocketed — and presumably invested — £250 million (around $302 million US) with which it has done precisely nothing. But that’s the government’s fault, the company says. We just need to get in a room and get things done.

Fortunately, the gallery was under a mandatory code of silence, for it was hard not to emit a gasp of incredulity when the Westinghouse executive announced that his company had been “smashing production records” around the world.

Westinghouse has indeed broken some things: the law, and the bank for starters. But production records? He also mentioned that nuclear was “clean, reliable, dependable power” the very things it is not.

All of this was both a reminder of, and an eye-opener to, exactly the kind of false propaganda our elected officials are continuously exposed to, and swallow whole-heartedly. This is who they listen to: the corporate elite, in the United States bearing gifts as well, often in the form of generous campaign contributions. The politicians bought literally and figuratively by the major corporations, including nuclear power companies, dwell in an echo chamber filled with hot air. It’s not reality.

What was happening in that room in Westminster was also utterly pointless. Sitting there listening to 90 minutes of valuable time squandered in the stubborn pursuit of learning something more about a completely futile technology that has zero applicability to the climate or the immediate jobs crisis, it struck me that this was yet another symptom of humanity’s general malaise. 

Or is it something worse than that? Being hell bent on wasting time and money talking about something entirely irrelevant no matter what the empirical evidence that should dismiss the continued use of nuclear power out of hand, must surely be a sign of some kind of madness?…………………………………….more https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2023/02/12/signs-of-madness/

February 12, 2023 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment

No to US nukes in Britain: CND is returning to Lakenheath, 20 May 2023!

 CND is returning to the US airbase at Lakenheath in Suffolk, to say no to the return of US nuclear bombs to Britain!

With reports last year that the nuclear weapons bunkers at the US-run Lakenheath airbase were undergoing multi-million pound upgrades, alarm bells rang: the US is planning to deploy upgraded B61-12 nuclear bombs to Britain. We must oppose this dangerous and destabilising development!

Hundreds of you joined us for two demonstrations at the base last year. On Saturday, 20 May, we will return with our biggest protest yet! More information to follow. Coaches are being arranged from around the country, please let us know if you are coordinating transport. For all queries, contact information@cnduk.org

February 11, 2023 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, UK | Leave a comment

Highlands Against Nuclear Power (HANP)

A NORTH campaign group, which was set up ten years ago to oppose the
transport of nuclear material from Dounreay, plans to broaden its remit and
change its name. Highlands Against Nuclear Transport (HANT) is set to
become Highlands Against Nuclear Power (HANP) in a bid to extend its role
to include proposed new nuclear plants, nuclear weapons and the proposed
Geological Disposal Facility (GDR).

However, HANT chairman, Tor Justad,
stressed the new body would continue to campaign on nuclear transport
issues as well. He said: “Producing electricity with nuclear power is twice
as expensive as with renewables, poses unacceptable risks of accidents,
provides bi-products for nuclear weapons, produces carbon at all stages of
development and is the technology of the past with no solution to dealing
with the 100 tonnes of UK nuclear waste stored at Sellafield as the
proposed GDR is only at an early consultation stage.”

John O’Groat Journal 9th Feb 2023

https://www.johnogroat-journal.co.uk/news/north-nuclear-campaign-group-plans-to-widen-its-remit-and-ch-302714/

February 11, 2023 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, UK | Leave a comment

When the Great Tide returns

Seventy years ago, on the night of 31 January/1 February, the ‘Great
Tide’ surged down the Essex Coast from Harwich all the way round to London,
bringing floods, death and destruction to communities and environments
along the sea, rivers and creeks that compose the 350 mile coastline.


Passing almost silently and unexpectedly in an age where phones were rare,
radios silent and police relied on foot and bicycle, the Great Tide exacted
its toll on poor communities like Jaywick and Canvey; our biggest peacetime
catastrophe, barely remembered beyond the older generation today.

Such a fate awaits any new nuclear development at Bradwell, harbouring dangerous
wastes into the far future on a battered, exposed and diminishing
coastline. It must not happen. As far as possible we must try to avoid the
calamity that overwhelmed our Essex shores on that fateful and perilous
night seventy years ago.

BANNG 7th Feb 2023

February 11, 2023 Posted by | climate change, UK | Leave a comment

UK’s Nuclear Free Local Authorities send seven magnificent suggestions to the new Secretary of State

‘Magnificent Seven’ suggestions sent to new Secretary of State 10th February 2023

On hearing the news that Grant Shapps has been appointed to head up Rishi Sunak’s new Energy Security and Net Zero Department, the Nuclear Free Local Authorities lost no time in sending him their ‘magnificent seven’ wish list of urgent priorities.

Councillor Lawrence O’Neill, Chair of the NFLA Steering Committee, said:

“The new department is rightly called Energy Security and Net Zero. It is the NFLA’s belief that it can achieve both if it focuses on reducing energy demand through a UK-wide emergency programme of home insulation and energy efficiency measures and upon increasing generating capacity using the renewable technologies we have from the sustainable sources we find in nature, such as solar, wind, tidal, and geothermal, coupled with green hydrogen and other innovative storage solutions.

“We should also be investing in local, divested energy networks by encouraging households, communities, local authorities and energy co-operatives to become energy-independent by generating their own sustainable clean energy, rather that indulging in vast expenditure on large nuclear power plants that are reliant on overseas contractors, money, technology and uranium, and that leave behind the deadly costly legacy of radioactive waste and contaminated reactor buildings.

“The NFLA is calling on the British Government to abandon the nuclear nightmare. Every pound spent on the nuclear energy folly is a pound that could be redirected to creating a renewable energy future.”

February 11, 2023 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment

Former Australian PM Tony Abbott joins board of UK climate sceptic thinktank

Christina’s note: The mad monk rides again. Madder than ever. As he’s an enthusiastic promoter of the nuclear industry, it is puzzling that Abbott is still a climate denialist.

Nowdays, the nuclear industry pushes their lie that nuclear beats global heating. So a good nuclear zealot should believe in climate change.

Abbott says ‘we need more genuine science and less groupthink’ in announcing position at Global Warming Policy Foundation

Guardian. Graham Readfearn 7 Feb 23

The former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott has joined the board of a UK-based thinktank that has been highly critical of climate science and action on global heating.

Since its launch in 2009, the Global Warming Policy Foundation has become known for its consistent attacks on climate science, the risks of global heating and – more recently – policies to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions.

The group, founded by the former Thatcher government treasurer Sir Nigel Lawson, is facing a complaint from three UK MPs and a not-for-profit campaign group accusing the GWPF of inappropriately claiming status as an educational charity while carrying out lobbying and skewed research.

Abbott said he was pleased to join the foundation “because it’s consistently injected a note of realism into the climate debate”………………

Dr Jerome Booth, the foundation’s chairman, said Abbott brings “a global perspective and policy insight at the very highest level” and he would help the group “to foster a culture of debate, respect and scrutiny in policy areas that are currently dominated by intolerance, high emotions, moral reasoning and confusion”.

Abbott is currently an adviser to the UK government’s Board of Trade. His name was raised last month as a possible replacement for the late senator Jim Molan in the upper house.

During his prime ministership between 2013 and 2015, Abbott drove to dismantle much of the country’s public policy architecture on climate change, successfully repealing a legislated price on carbon, defunding the independent Climate Commission but failing to dismantle the Climate Change Authority and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency.

In 2017, he flew to London to deliver the GWPF’s annual lecture, where he suggested natural factors could be to blame for global warming, that CO2 was a trace gas and hinted at a global conspiracy to tamper with temperature data to make global heating seem worse.

The foundation is seen as influential among some conservatives. Conservative MP Steve Baker resigned as a GWPF trustee when he became minister for Northern Ireland.

A group of Conservative MPs and peers – several with links to the foundation – have formed the Net Zero Scrutiny Group, which has used the GWPF’s work as part of its advocacy.

The GWPF’s non-charitable arm – the Global Warming Policy Forum – runs a project called Net Zero Watch, which claims to scrutinise climate and decarbonisation policies.

The foundation has several Australian links. As the Guardian reported, one of its earliest funders was Australian billionaire hedge fund manager Sir Michael Hintze, who last year was handed a seat in the House of Lords at the recommendation of the former UK prime minister Boris Johnson.

Four Australian climate sceptics sit on the GWPF academic advisory board, including mining industry figure Prof Ian Plimer and controversial marine scientist Dr Peter Ridd of the Institute of Public Affairs, an Australian thinktank known to promote climate science denial.

The late Cardinal George Pell also delivered a GWPF annual lecture in 2011.

Presenting a report last year, the GWPF’s director, Dr Benny Peiser, said: “It’s extraordinary that anyone should think there is a climate crisis.”

Last year three MPs – one each from Labor, the Greens and the Liberal Democrats – joined with a not-for-profit campaign group to complain to the UK’s Charity Commission.

The group questioned if the GWPF was breaking charity rules by commissioning unbalanced research and carrying out political advocacy from charitable funds……………….. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/feb/07/former-australian-pm-tony-abbott-joins-board-climate-sceptic-thinktank-global-warming-policy-foundation

February 9, 2023 Posted by | climate change, UK | Leave a comment

Fear for fish: EDF plan for Hinkley project means ‘enormous tragedy’ for ecosystem

 Former US President George W. Bush Snr may have famously said that ‘the
human being and fish can coexist peacefully’, but the UK/Ireland Nuclear
Free Local Authorities believe that EDF Energy’s plan to scrap the
commitment to install acoustic fish deterrents at its new Hinkley Point C
plant will end that peaceful co-existence with billions of fish being
endangered.

Responding to a public consultation launched recently by the
Environment Agency seeking views on a proposal by French nuclear power
developer EDF Energy to scrap the deterrent mechanism at Hinkley,
Councillor David Blackburn, Chair of the NFLA English Forum called it an
‘enormous tragedy’.

A plant like Hinkley Point C ‘hoovers up’
millions of gallons of water daily to cool its reactors, discharging the
heated water back out to sea. Unfortunately, with the intake of the water
will come the fish, and although EDF is proposing to install some
mechanisms to prevent the ingress of fish and marine life into the plant,
it has consistently made plain its opposition to the installation of
acoustic fish deterrents.

Councillor Blackburn is, like local campaigners,
concerned that without Acoustic Fish Deterrents, alongside other measures
for marine life preservation, millions of fish will be killed every day,
and the group Stop Hinkley, which is opposed to the construction of the
plant, has estimated that up to 11 billion fish could die through
operations there over the course of its expected 60-year lifespan.

 NFLA 7th Feb 2023

February 9, 2023 Posted by | environment, UK | Leave a comment

Campaigners claim permit change at Hinkley Point would kill billions of fish

West Somerset Free Press,  6th February 2023 

ANTI-nuclear campaigners have estimated 11 billion fish off the West Somerset coastline could be killed during the operating life of the new Hinkley Point C nuclear power station.

The Stop Hinkley group said the slaughter would arise if EDF was allowed to ‘wriggle out’ of planning conditions which required acoustic fish deterrents (AFDs) to be fitted to water intake heads.

EDF has to date refused to fit the AFDs and is consulting the Environment Agency (EA) with a view to trying to have the condition dropped.

Stop Hinkley spokeswoman Katy Attwater said the 11 billion figure was calculated over the 60-year lifespan of Hinkley C.

She said affected common fish species would include river lamprey, twaite shad, sprat, herring and the common goby, while rarer species which would be killed included salmon, cod, anchovy, John dory, crucian carp, silver bream, and sea lamprey.

Ms Attwater said the fish migrated from the Bristol Channel to nine main rivers, the Ely, Taff, Rhymney, Ebbw, Usk, Wye, Severn, Avon, and Parrett.

She said particularly hard hit would be the elver migration from the Atlantic, with eels being sucked into the Hinkley intakes and only comparatively few making it to the Somerset Levels and other rivers, which would be their homes for the next 20 years before their return journey past the intake heads to travel back to their Sargasso Sea breeding grounds.

Ms Attwater said EDF’s request three years ago to not have to install the AFDs was rejected by the Environment Agency, a public inquiry, and DEFRA Secretary George Eustice.

“Yet, EDF are still trying to wriggle out of it and waste all the time, money, and effort spent by the EA, the Severn Estuary interest groups, and DEFRA to defend one of the most important breeding grounds for British fish,” she said.

The estuary is a site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and a Special Area of Conservation(SAC) and has been given an internationally important Ramsar site designation………………………………………….

The Environment Agency has launched a five-week consultation on the proposed change to the Water Discharge Activity permit.  https://www.wsfp.co.uk/campaigners-claim-permit-change-at-hinkley-point-would-kill-billions-of-fish-592793

February 6, 2023 Posted by | oceans, UK | Leave a comment

Taking up Hilda’s Torch: Robert Green’s account of his contribution to the 1988/9 Hinkley C Inquiry.

4th February 2023  http://stophinkley.org/nuclear-new-build/taking-up-hildas-torch-robert-greens-account-of-his-contribution-to-the-1988-9-hinkley-c-inquiry/

This is an interesting insight both into the Inquiry and the background to nuclear power in the UK.  The information and comments are as relevant today as they were all those years ago. TakingUpHildasTorch.

Hilda Murrell (born in 1906) was a British rose grower, naturalist, diarist and campaigner against nuclear power and nuclear weapons.  She was murdered in 1984 in disputed circumstances.

Having predicted the 1973 oil crisis, Murrell became increasingly concerned by the hazards posed by nuclear energy and weapons. She began to research this highly technical field and in 1978 wrote a paper entitled “What Price Nuclear Power?” in which she challenged the economics of the civil nuclear industry.  After the 1979 US accident at Three Mile Island, she turned her attention to safety aspects and homed in on the problem of radioactive waste, the disposal of which she concluded was the industry’s Achilles’ heel.

In 1982 the Department of the Environment published a white paper on the British Government’s policy on radioactive waste management.  Murrell, now in her late 70s, wrote a critique of it which she developed into her submission “An Ordinary Citizen’s View of Radioactive Waste Management” to the first formal planning inquiry into a nuclear power plant in Britain, the Sizewell B Pressurised Water Reactor in Suffolk.

She was scheduled to present her paper at the Sizewell B Inquiry, but on 21 March 1984 her home in Shrewsbury was burgled and a small amount of cash was taken.  She was then abducted in her own car.  Though the vehicle was soon reported abandoned in a country lane five miles outside Shrewsbury, the Police took another three days to find her body in a copse across a field from her car.  Who killed her – and why – has been the subject of books and films.  The conviction in 2005 of a man for her abduction and murder failed to answer many of the questions surrounding her death.

The reasons for this enduring enquiry are exposed at length in ‘A Thorn In Their Side’, a book published in 2012.  The author is Hilda’s nephew, Robert Green, with whom she had a close relationship and who was a commander in naval intelligence during the Falklands war. He has followed and chronicled the case meticulously.

Was this just a random, bungled burglary by a lone 16-year-old – as the police would have it – or was it an operation involving several individuals on behalf of a government agency, namely the security services?  Read more: The Guardian March 2012 https://www.theguardian.com/law/2012/mar/20/who-killed-hilda-murrell

Also see:

February 6, 2023 Posted by | secrets,lies and civil liberties, UK | Leave a comment

Budget cuts have left UK’s military’s stores bare: General says Britain would run out of ammo in a day if it fought Russia. Britain buying ammo from South Asia to support Ukraine.

  • General Sir Richard Barrons said years of cuts have left cupboards almost bare
  • Meanwhile, Ben Wallace said military spending may have to rise for two decades

Daily Mail, By KATHERINE LAWTON 3 Feb 23,

Britain’s ammo stocks would run out in a day if it fought Russia – as a top former General said years of cuts have left military’s stores bare.

The warning from General Sir Richard Barrons comes a day after Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the UK’s forces have been ‘hollowed out’, adding that military spending may have to rise for two decades, owing to global threats. 

According to The Sun, Britain is buying ammo from South Asia to support Ukraine. 

Dr Jack Watling, at military think tank Rusi, said Ukraine had been firing around 6,000 shells a day, but we rely on imported explosives for tank and artillery shells. 

Our ammo plants, run by defence contractor BAE, would take a year to make a day’s shells for Ukraine, sources said. 

Meanwhile, it was also revealed that Britain has no working heavy artillery guns after giving all serviceable AS90 self-propelled items to Ukraine. 

General Barrons said the Army requires £3 billion more a year to rejoin Nato’s top tier. 

In his column for The Sun, he wrote: ‘This is truly shocking. But it is true. And we must fix it.

‘The UK spends more on defence than any EU ally and our brave Armed Forces have long been one of Britain’s most influential levers around the world. 

‘Yet for decades they have been hollowed out by spending cuts.’     

…………………………… Mr Wallace also responded to urgent calls from former Prime Minister Boris Johnson to send fighter jets to Ukraine. 

‘I’m open to examining all systems, not just jets. But these things don’t always happen overnight,’ he added. 

Of Ukraine’s fighters he said: ‘Even if tomorrow we announced we were going to put them in fast jets, that would take months.

‘You’re suddenly having to learn to pilot a fast jet, so there is no magic wand.’   

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Mr Wallace want to send a squadron of tanks to the country, which could arrive by the end of next month.

The MoD said it was boosting ammo stockpiles to ‘more than pre-invasion levels’ with an extra £560 million from the Treasury.

Defence chiefs have pledged all 30 working AS90s to Kyiv and are now urgently seeking K9 Thunders and Archer guns to replenish their stocks, it was recently reported.  ……….
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11708161/Britain-run-ammo-day-fought-Russia-Cuts-left-militarys-stores-bare.html

February 6, 2023 Posted by | UK, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Nuclear too expensive and not needed — Beyond Nuclear International

Detailed research shows mistake in pursuing nuclear power

Nuclear too expensive and not needed — Beyond Nuclear International

Energy scientists show obsolescence of nuclear power in an all-renewable future

From Claverton Energy Group

Sizewell C is much more expensive and slower to build than proven and reliable alternative low carbon solutions says an energy think tank that examined nuclear projects in the United Kingdom. Even the unfinished twin reactors at Hinkley C can’t compete with renewables.

Baseload generators such as nuclear power plants are not needed in an all-renewable future and their use will almost certainly increase overall costs to consumers says an elite Claverton Energy Group of experts. Professor Mark Barrett, from University College London (UCL), who has modeled the comparative costs of nuclear and renewable power, using hour-by-hour wind and solar data with 35 years of weather data,  said:

“Nuclear power is more expensive and slower to build than renewables, particularly offshore wind. 7 GW of wind will generate about 40% more electricity than Hinkley at about 30-50% of the cost per kWh and will be built in half the time. Neither wind nor nuclear plants operate all the time, so both will need backup. Modeling shows the total cost of renewable generation to be less than nuclear and to be just as able to provide continuous power even with wind and solar droughts.”   

This detailed modeling of the entire heat, power and transport system in the UK, has been carried out by a number of top-flight university researchers and shows that:

Continue reading

February 6, 2023 Posted by | business and costs, UK | Leave a comment

Nuclear must not be part of Cromartry Firth freeport vision

YOUR VIEWS: ‘Nuclear should not be part of freeport vision’. A reader and
campaigner reacts to news that small nuclear reactors could be built in the
north. The Courier carried comments from Global director Steve Chisholm
that small modular nuclear reactors could be built in the Cromartry Firth
after the award of green freeport status for the area.

Nuclear should not be part of freeport vision I refer to the article headed “Nuclear Reactor
is in the freeport mix “(Inverness Courier, January 20) and was very
surprised that this proposal has now emerged. HANT (Highlands Against
Nuclear Transport) has raised concerns since 2013 about many safety
concerns related to the transport of nuclear waste by rail from Georgemas
Junction (near Dounreay) to Barrow and on to the Sellafield Nuclear plant.
There have been a number of incidents of concern related to both rail and
sea transport.

Inverness Courier 31st Jan 2023

https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/your-views-nuclear-should-not-be-part-of-freeport-vision-301589/

February 2, 2023 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, UK | Leave a comment

Top UK pension funds refuse to invest in Sizewell C nuclear plan, despite government enticements.

Whatever the funding model, Sizewell C is highly controversial. It carries multiple risks, of time and cost overruns, reputation and technical problems.

‘If the Government is forced to peddle it to foreign investors, it will make its justification in terms of ‘energy sovereignty’ even more of a joke.’

‘If the Government is forced to peddle it to foreign investors, it will make its justification in terms of ‘energy sovereignty’ even more of a joke.’

Blow to Government’s infrastructure drive as two top UK pension funds snub Sizewell C nuclear plant plan

By FRANCESCA WASHTELL FOR THE DAILY MAIL, 1 February 2023

Efforts to attract investment in British infrastructure were hit after two of the UK’s biggest pension funds turned their backs on Sizewell C.

Ministers are tearing up old EU red tape that Chancellor Jeremy Hunt says will unlock £100billion in possible funding for major projects.

The most important of these is the £20billion Sizewell C nuclear power plant in Suffolk, which is being developed by the Government and EDF but will need billions of private funding.

The Government has spent years trying to woo pension groups and institutional investors by introducing a new funding model that allows them to receive dividends during the construction process.

It is expected to go a step further by classifying nuclear as a green energy source in an upcoming eco-friendly financing strategy, which would make it easier for companies to win support to invest in power plants.

But an industry source said Sizewell C would still not be an appropriate investment for ‘typical big-name UK pension schemes’, as they see the risk of cost over-runs and delays being too high. 

So far, other potential backers such as Nest and Legal & General have said they do not intend to fund the project.

But British Gas owner Centrica is thought to be considering taking a stake, while FTSE 100 savings and retirement firm Phoenix Group has said it is keen to back nuclear.

The source added that funding was more likely to come from North America and the Middle East, with Emirati sovereign wealth fund Mubadala already said to be in the mix.

Alison Downes, the head of campaign group Stop Sizewell C, said: ‘Whatever the funding model, Sizewell C is highly controversial. It carries multiple risks, of time and cost overruns, reputation and technical problems.

‘If the Government is forced to peddle it to foreign investors, it will make its justification in terms of ‘energy sovereignty’ even more of a joke.’

February 1, 2023 Posted by | business and costs, UK | Leave a comment