‘Madness’ to delay nuclear decisions

Leaving big decisions about the future of the UK’s nuclear programme until after the next election would be “disastrous” and “madness”, the government’s chief nuclear adviser has warned.

Simon Bowen, who was appointed last year by ex-prime minister Boris Johnson, was quizzed by the House of Commons Welsh Affairs committee this morning (Wednesday 22 February) about whether detailed decisions about the nuclear programme are likely to be delayed until a new government is in place.

He said it would be disastrous to wait another two years, adding that the industry in the UK and abroad would lose faith in the government’s commitment to nuclear power.

“We have to have the courage to take an inter-generational view on energy resilience and climate change and waiting two years for that would be madness,” he said.

Bowen expressed concern at an earlier select committee hearing about the lack of a government strategy for energy, including a lack of information on how to deliver the quantity of nuclear power that the UK will require.

The government’s Energy Security Strategy, published in April 2022, envisages a significant acceleration of new nuclear in the UK, with an ambition of up to 24GW by 2050 to come from this source of power. In total, this would cover around 25% of the country’s projected electricity needs.

Despite his concerns, Bowen said he was confident that the government will soon make an announcement on the next steps for its proposed Great British Nuclear (GBN) agency.

Bowen also told the committee of Welsh MPs that Wylfa on the Isle of Anglesey is “close to the front of the queue” of potential sites that GBN will be looking at for large new nuclear plants. Hitachi abandoned plans to build a new nuclear power station on the north Wales island in 2019. Since then, the site has also been looked at by Rolls-Royce SMR as a potential site for their small modular reactors.

Bowen said that if GBN gets the green light next month, it could begin recommending sites for nuclear plants towards the latter end of this year.

Bowen also revealed that he had submitted his report outlining proposals for GBN to Johnson just before the ex-prime minister was forced out of office last summer, since when there has been no formal response from ministers.

Also giving evidence to the committee, energy minister Graham Stuart expressed disappointment that the Labour opposition had not supported the regulations to allow the Regulated Asset Base model to be used for nuclear projects when they went through Parliament a fortnight ago.

He said: “That kind of negative messaging is heard in boardrooms across the world and gets in the way.

“It is tremendously disappointing that we didn’t have cross party support for those regulations.”

The RAB funding model has been mooted as a means of funding the construction of the proposed Sizewell C nuclear plant.

However, industry experts have suggested that the government’s commitment to large-scale nuclear projects will be tested by the announcement that Hinkley Point C’s costs have increased by a further £6 billion.