Latest news with #nuclear power
Times
8 hours ago
- Business
- Times
Sizewell C nuclear plant gets green light at cost of £38bn
A new nuclear plant is to be built in Suffolk at a cost of £38 billion after the government agreed to charge households for its construction and to protect private investors from cost overruns. The Sizewell C project should provide enough clean power to supply six million homes and is scheduled to start up in the mid-2030s, although no exact date has been given. Households will pay about £1 a month on their energy bills from this autumn for about a decade while the twin-reactor plant is being built. Consumers will also pay potential further levies once it is up and running to ensure that companies, including British Gas owner Centrica and France's EDF, make a return on their investment. • Nuclear power is back. Will it work out this time? The taxpayer will own a 44.9 per cent stake in Sizewell C and will be on the hook for additional construction costs if they rise above £47 billion, ensuring investors an 'acceptable' return, Centrica said. The government has estimated that Sizewell C will cut the cost of running Britain's energy system by £2 billion a year compared with alternative options, but it has so far declined to share further estimates of how much it will actually cost consumers once it is up and running. The project will support 10,000 jobs during the construction phase, according to estimates. Sizewell C is a sister station to the Hinkley Point C project being built by EDF in Somerset, which has seen costs spiral from £18 billion when it was approved in 2016 to as much as £48 billion today. It was originally scheduled to begin delivering power this year, but now may not start up until 2031. Nuclear projects elsewhere in the world have also suffered huge cost overruns and delays. No cost had been put on Sizewell C since 2020, when it was estimated at £20 billion, but the government today confirmed it was expected to cost £38 billion, or about 20 per cent less than Hinkley. About a quarter of this will be funded through equity investment, with the remainder from debt. The government is to invest £3.8 billion in equity, British Gas owner Centrica will invest £1.3 billion for a 15 per cent stake, British investment manager Amber Infrastructure will put in £650 million for 7.6 per cent, and Canada's La Caisse £1.7 billion for 20 per cent, alongside France's EDF's previously-announced 12.5 per cent for £1.05 billion. • Hinkley Point C's soaring costs blamed on red tape The government's National Wealth Fund is to provide £36.6 billion of debt financing alongside £5 billion from Bpifrance Assurance Export. The equity and debt totals significantly more than £38 billion in nominal terms. The government has already said it had committed £17.8 billion to Sizewell C this parliament, which includes investment to date as well as its share of ongoing equity and debt. Any profit the government makes on its investment will be passed back to consumers and is reflected in the £1 a month cost estimate. Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, said: 'This government is making the investment needed to deliver a new golden age of nuclear, so we can end delays and free us from the ravages of the global fossil fuel markets to bring bills down for good.' Alison Downes of the Stop Sizewell C campaign group said: 'This much-delayed final investment decision has only crawled over the line thanks to guarantees that the public purse, not private investors, will carry the can for the inevitable cost overruns. Even so, UK households will soon be hit with a new Sizewell C construction tax on their energy bills. 'It is astounding that it is only now, as contracts are being signed, that the government has confessed that Sizewell C's cost has almost doubled to an eye-watering £38 billion — a figure that will only go up.' The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said: 'La Caisse, Centrica and Amber's multi-billion-pound investment is a powerful endorsement of the UK as the best place to do business and as a global hub for nuclear energy.' Chris O'Shea, Centrica's chief executive, said: 'The UK needs more reliable, affordable, zero carbon electricity, and Sizewell C will be critical to supporting the country's energy system for many decades to come. This isn't just an investment in a new power station — it's an investment in Britain's energy independence, our net zero journey, and thousands of high-quality jobs across the country.'
South China Morning Post
3 days ago
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong's future lies in being the finance launch pad for tomorrow's tech
For years, Hong Kong's policy narrative has leaned heavily into national security. From the national security law to Article 23 legislation, the emphasis on stability and control has reshaped the city's global identity. But with geopolitical tensions showing signs of stabilising, the moment is ripe for a strategic shift. Advertisement The next global chapter isn't just about containment and scarcity, it is also about creation and abundance. The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and digital platforms means abundance can be more evenly distributed, turning technological promise into tangible benefits for both urban centres and rural communities. Hong Kong's future lies in becoming a launch pad for the financial engines of the new technology economy for the next generation, from deep-tech funding to AI-powered green finance. Just as steam power revolutionised Britain's industrial landscape, today's equivalents – batteries , nuclear power generation and solar infrastructure – are poised to redefine global growth. These are not niche technologies; they are the backbone of a new era. Battery development is triggering a transformation across supply chains, from rare earth extraction and refinement to mobility and storage solutions. Hong Kong's financial sector should be underwriting this revolution, crafting instruments that support cross-border logistics and deep-tech ventures. Nuclear power, though politically sensitive, is likely to remain essential to clean energy. Small modular reactors are gaining traction globally, and Hong Kong could position itself as a financing and regulatory sandbox – a neutral and welcoming playground for capital and collaboration. Advertisement Solar power , meanwhile, presents a different opportunity. It is the fastest-growing energy source globally, abundant and safe when compared to nuclear, yet free from strong strategic entanglement. As major nations consider industrial policy, they often weigh whether a sector is strategic, profitable and winnable. Solar technology and production is arguably geopolitically frictionless and commercially scalable. Financing this sector is something Hong Kong can do well.
New York Times
4 days ago
- Health
- New York Times
Robert Alvarez, 76, Dies; Called Attention to Nuclear-Waste Safety
Robert Alvarez, a self-taught expert on nuclear power, nuclear weapons and the waste that both produce who worked for decades as an activist outside the government and, during the 1990s, as a high-ranking official within it, died on July 1 in Virginia Beach, Va. He was 76. His daughter Amber Alvarez Torgerson said he died in an assisted living facility from complications of Parkinson's disease. Mr. Alvarez did not set out to become a key voice in the campaign to clean up America's vast and deadly network of nuclear-waste sites. As a young legislative aide for Senator James Abourezk, a Democrat from South Dakota, in the mid-1970s, he focused mainly on American Indian affairs. But after meeting with a group of Navajos whose decades of labor in uranium mines had left them with a raft of illnesses, he drafted a bill to extend federal medical coverage for black lung disease — a chronic problem for coal miners — and to include nuclear workers. To his surprise and frustration, his bill never even got a hearing. He was told that it would cast a negative light on the nuclear energy and weapons industries, powerful forces with extensive pull on Capitol Hill. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Telegraph
5 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
We'll stop Nimbys from blocking nuclear power stations, say Tories
Nimbys will be stopped from blocking nuclear power stations in their area under Tory plans. The party wants to end the 'absurd' blocking of new nuclear sites through environmental impact assessments or regulations on habitats, and would make it impossible to challenge a new power station in court. The Tories have submitted amendments to the Government's Planning and Infrastructure Bill that would exempt nuclear power stations from being blocked or delayed on environmental grounds, to speed up energy production in the UK. They accused Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, of presiding over 'the highest prices for offshore wind in a decade' and called for more nuclear power to meet the UK's growing demand for electricity. The rule changes would see planning officers ignore all environmental considerations when building a new nuclear site, which is likely to anger locals and lead to public opposition. However, the party said it would also stop 'anti-growth activist groups from using lawfare to block or delay development and pushing up costs' by exempting the ministerial consent for new power stations from judicial review. Writing for The Telegraph, Claire Coutinho, the shadow energy secretary, said the new Hinkley Point C power station in Somerset is set to be the most expensive in history because of 'bureaucracy and rampant lawfarism'. '[There is] Endless lawfare, environmental paperwork, and legal challenges that do little to protect nature but create plenty of expensive work for planning consultants and pencil-pushing bureaucrats,' she said. 'Every single delay and absurd mitigation measure adds more cost.' The amendments would only become law with the support of Labour MPs, which is not expected to happen. Labour has previously said it will reform the same rules raised by the Conservatives, but will not exempt them from judicial review or all environmental assessments. In February, Downing Street pointed to a 30,000-page environmental assessment that Hinkley Point planners were required to produce to receive permission to build. The last new power station was constructed in the UK in 1995, and while domestic demand for electricity has grown many renewable energy sources are not expected to start producing power until the next decade. Responding to the Conservative proposal, Sam Richards, chief executive of pro-growth campaign group Britain Remade, said the UK had the 'worst of both worlds' with a planning system that does not protect nature and slows down infrastructure projects. 'These amendments are radical, but the status quo where safe, clean nuclear power projects are delayed and made more expensive due to repeated legal challenges and poorly drafted environmental legislation is intolerable,' he said. 'Nuclear power isn't just safe, it is also low carbon. It also has the smallest land footprint of any form of energy. Without nuclear power we have to turn to sources that take up more land and impact nature more.' No more fish discos – cheap, reliable energy must come first By Claire Coutinho It's no secret that I'm a fan of nuclear power. In government, the Conservatives ended a 30-year moratorium on new nuclear, with two new plants consented, a third agreed and a fleet of next-generation smaller reactors on the way. While Labour is paying lip-service to continuing that work, they have downgraded our ambitions by scrapping our 24GW target, the third nuclear plant I had agreed on Anglesey in Wales, and downgrading our ambitions for our small modular reactor programme. This is because Ed Miliband's ideological obsession with wind and solar farms has made him blind to their soaring costs and the challenges they pose for our beautiful but small islands. This is an enormous mistake. It's time to double down on nuclear, not scale it back. Nuclear can provide us with the stable, reliable, 24/7 power that we need if we want to have a prosperous nation and support new energy hungry industries like AI. Only nuclear gives us a secure supply chain that can give us real energy independence, without having to import more and more solar panels, batteries and critical minerals from coal-powered China. And crucially it is better for nature, using less than 0.1 per cent of the land required by wind and solar farms. Choosing a nuclear future is our best chance at protecting the glorious British countryside we all love – and it produces zero emissions to boot. We need to bring costs down The one problem? We need to bring costs down. Hinkley Point C is set to be the most expensive nuclear power station in history. Not because of the technology – Hinkley C is almost 70 per cent more expensive than a project building the very same safe reactor design in Finland. It is, in part, because of our own bureaucracy and rampant lawfarism. Endless lawfare, environmental paperwork, and legal challenges that do little to protect nature but create plenty of expensive work for planning consultants and pencil-pushing bureaucrats. Every single delay and absurd mitigation measure adds more cost. The prime example is the 'fish disco' at Hinkley – where EDF has spent eight years negotiating the installation of 288 underwater loudspeakers, at the cost of millions of pounds, to prevent one fishing trawler's worth of fish from swimming into their water pipes. Today, we are putting a stop to that. We have tabled radical amendments to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill to stop a system which puts its addiction to paperwork above the national interest and our need for cheap, reliable energy. No more environmental impact assessments 30 times longer than the complete works of Shakespeare. No more pointless, gold-plated fish discos. No more bogus judicial reviews from anti-growth activist groups who just want to kill off the infrastructure that is critical to our national and energy security. I have every sympathy with those who truly want to protect nature. I believe, as does Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, that our love of our natural world sits deep in our national soul. But this self-defeating, sclerotic system is nature's own worst enemy. In making it impossible to build cheap nuclear on a small number of sites, we will just end up building thousands upon thousands of wind turbines and solar farms in every corner of the country. Nuclear produces, by far, more power per acre than any other source of energy. This could not be more important on a small island like ours. Dr John Constable of the Renewable Energy Foundation has calculated that wind and solar farms use up to 3,000 times more land than nuclear to produce the same amount of energy. Abundant nuclear is not a pipe dream In some areas, up to 8 per cent of all land is already covered by solar farm applications – and this is only going to soar as Ed Miliband's targets mean building more than ever before, faster than ever before. Cheap, abundant nuclear is not a pipe dream. Some of the cheapest and cleanest electricity in Europe can be found in France, Finland and Sweden and all of them rely on nuclear for baseload. As ever, it is the green anti-growthers who are shooting themselves in the foot by opposing the only form of cheap, reliable, secure, clean energy. It's no secret the West is in trouble – post-Covid debt, challenging demographics and stagnating growth are putting pressure on governments of all colours. But in nuclear power, Britain has a ready-made escape plan. We just need politicians brave enough to change the law to allow us to carry it through. Britain is in touching distance of a new era of prosperity. With cheap, abundant, reliable nuclear energy, we could end the poverty mindset that says British consumers should rearrange their lives to suit an energy system that depends on the weather. We could take the brakes off new energy hungry data centres and even, dare I say, let people have air conditioning.
CNA
6 days ago
- Business
- CNA
Microsoft, US national lab tap AI to speed up nuclear power permitting process
SAN FRANCISCO :Microsoft and a U.S. national laboratory on Wednesday said they are partnering to examine how artificial intelligence could be used to speed up the process of compiling the documents needed to secure permits for new nuclear power plants. Microsoft and the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) said they will tap Microsoft's AI technology for generating engineering and safety analysis reports that are a standard part of the application process for construction permits and operating licenses for nuclear facilities in the United States. The AI systems, which have been trained on a huge trove of successful historical applications, will pull data from studies and compile it into complex applications that span hundreds of pages. "It's created for human refinement, so a human can go through each of the sections and, specifically as needed, edit any of the sections, whether manually, or maybe with the help of AI - it's really up to the human," Nelli Babayan, AI director for federal civilian business at Microsoft, told Reuters in an interview. The move comes after President Donald Trump in May signed executive orders to fast-track the licensing process for new nuclear power plants, aiming to shorten what is often a multiyear process into as little as 18 months as AI data centers create soaring demand for energy. The technology could also help with squeezing more energy out of existing nuclear plants, said Scott Ferrara, deputy division director for nuclear safety and regulatory research at INL. Existing nuclear facilities must submit an evaluation of how they might increase power output and apply for an amendment to their operating license. "A plethora of data already exists from about 82 upgrades that have already taken place, and they can just pull right from that (data) and help generate their license amendment request," Ferrara told Reuters in an interview.
