Existing Sizewell B nuclear power station
The cost would be a drop in the bucket compared to proposed spending on non-nuclear ‘green’ energy, in futile attempts to influence the weather.
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The government is close to giving the green light to a new nuclear power station at Sizewell in Suffolk, says BBC News (via The GWPF).
The BBC has learned that talks with the Sizewell contractor, EDF, have intensified in recent weeks.
This comes after the collapse of projects in Anglesey and Cumbria when Japanese firms Hitachi and Toshiba pulled out.
Government officials are insisting that it “remains committed to new nuclear”.
This commitment to new nuclear may be included as part of a 10-point government plan to be published in early November.
That plan is expected ahead of a detailed government white paper in late November which will attempt to set out the course of UK energy policy for decades to come.
Unions have warned that a failure to transfer jobs, skills and new opportunities from the current project under construction at Hinkley Point in Somerset to Sizewell in Suffolk would put thousands of high skilled jobs at risk.
The details of how new reactors at Sizewell will be paid for are still being hammered out.
The government is considering taking an ownership stake and consumers may see a small addition to their bills to pay for the project as it is being built, in order to drive down the costs of financing a project that may cost up to £20bn and take about 10 years to build.
The bigger the government stake, the smaller the call on consumers to “pay as you go” for the development and construction costs.
This funding model has been treated with suspicion before, as opponents say it transfers the risk of delays and budget overruns from the contractor to the consumer and the taxpayer.
However, the BBC understands that the fact Sizewell C is a carbon copy of Hinkley – which has seen work on a second reactor there completed 30% more quickly than the first – is thought to have substantially mitigated that risk.
Continued here.
Tallbloke's Talkshop 
“The bigger the government stake, the smaller the call on consumers to “pay as you go” for the development and construction costs.”
Out of one account into another. The consumer still sees cost plus in the end.
cue Greenpeace, stage left
A move in the right direction. Better the money be spent on this rather than on the wind subsidies paid for when it isn’t blowing. Look forward to the White Paper; but with Boris Johnson’s recent pronouncements I have my fears.
EDF.
Does the government have any sense at all, they have been a disaster over the last 5 years?
The BBC wanders into energy dreamland again…
Climate change: You’ve got cheap data, how about cheap power too?
31st October
By Justin Rowlatt
Chief environment correspondent
Green tech is at a tipping point where it could take off explosively – just like the smartphone did. And, just like the smartphone, it could bring a revolution in how we do much more than just create energy.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-54723147
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It was said once that electricity from UK nuclear power would be ‘too cheap to meter’, but that didn’t work out too well.
Rowlatt: I’ve travelled all over the world for the BBC and seen evidence of environmental damage and climate change everywhere. [bold added]
Then writes about the supposedly huge problem of ‘carbon’ emissions 😆
Give us a break.
Let the investors take the risks, not the public.
pochas – that’s what they told the Japanese, who pulled out.
A refreshing ray of sanity.
When the Luddites surround Sizewell waving pitchforks, they will proclaim the fact that their anti-carbon rhetoric is a pure opportunistic lie. They don’t know or care about climate, they don’t even know what carbon is or what atoms are, they just jump on any opportunity to destroy technology and capitalism.