In 2008, the government of the U.K. stated that nuclear energy needed to be a part of their mix of future sources of energy. However, the government made it very clear that they would not be financing nuclear power and that any new nuclear projects would have to financed entirely by non-governmental investors. This policy has led to three different nuclear power projects involving different reactor designs. In all these projects, the company which is bidding to build and operate the reactors is also the company supplying the technology and the design.
Horizon Nuclear Power is a subsidiary of Hitachi-GE, a Japanese company. HNP wants to build Hitachi-GE Advanced Boiling Water Reactors (ABWRs) at Wylfa in Wales and Oldbury in England.
NuGen, a company which is majority owned by Toshiba, a Japanese company wants to build three Westinghouse AP1000 reactors at Moorside in Cumbria.
EDF, the French-owned utility company is working on a contract to build two European Pressurized Reactors at the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station in Somerset. The Chinese owned company China General Nuclear has a major financial stake in the project. CGN also wants to build a Chinese Hualong One reactor in Suffolk as part of the project.
All of these different reactor designs are new and the first models are just being built. It will not be known which of these types of reactors is the best from a safety standpoint until all of the designs have been in operation for years and can be evaluated.
Defenders of the U.K. approach say that the government has to rely on the companies offering to build the reactors being willing to finance the deals with the intent to recover their expenses through the sale of electricity. While the U.K. government won't directly finance the projects, they are willing to offer to buy the electricity produced by the new power reactors at a guaranteed subsidized rate significantly higher than the current open market price for electricity in the U.K.
Critics of the U.K. plan say that it is inefficient and wasteful to build a bunch of different designs and that regulation will be much more complex and costly. The critics point out that the energy sector is undergoing rapid and turbulent changes. With cheap oil and natural gas as well as falling costs for wind, solar and tidal power depressing the price of power, it would be foolish to invest billions of dollars in nuclear power and guarantee high prices for electricity produced for decades.
Some environmental groups that have traditionally been opposed to nuclear power are now promoting it as a way to ameliorate climate change. While nuclear power is low carbon, it is not no carbon as some have claimed. It is also very expensive compared to some low carbon alternatives and it will take too long to bring enough nuclear power reactors online to make much difference in the fight against climate change. More immediate solutions are required to prevent catastrophe. And it has been found that nations that promote nuclear power are less dedicated to climate change mitigation that nations which do not include nuclear power in their fight against climate change.
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