UK cannot have energy security or independence without nuclear power

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Virginia Crosbie, MP for Ynys Môn in Wales, said the country cannot have energy security or independence without nuclear power.

The added: “Backing British nuclear, alongside major investment in renewables, means transforming our economy into a green energy powerhouse of the twenty-first century, freed from global gas prices and the havoc they play with consumer bills.”

“As our current nuclear fleet gradually retires, we are getting a little glimpse of what life could be without nuclear: constant warnings about grid capacity, talk of blackouts, record household bills, and factories stopping production as they can’t afford spiralling gas prices.”

“We can choose a different future.”

The UK generates about 15 percent of its electricity from about 6.5 GW of nuclear capacity.

There are plans for around a quarter of Britain’s energy to be supplied from nuclear plants by 2025 but most existing capacity is to be retired by the end of the decade.

Professor Adrian Bull, BNFL chair in Nuclear Energy Systems at The University of Manchester’s Dalton Nuclear Institute, said: “Nuclear provides reliable, safe, low-carbon electricity 24/7 in the vast quantities we need to power homes, schools, hospitals, offices and industry.”

“Nothing else can do that in the UK, so we should invest rapidly in new nuclear – alongside both renewables and energy efficiency improvements.”

EDF energy is building two new nuclear reactors at Hinkley Point C in Somerset, the first in a new generation of nuclear power stations in the UK.

The firm also plans to build a two-reactor nuclear power station, which it says will power six million homes, at Sizewell in Suffolk.

Professor Bull said: “We can’t just rely on the massive reactors, like the ones being built at Hinkley Point in Somerset and planned for Sizewell in Suffolk, though.

“Whilst they represent a vital piece of the jigsaw, we don’t have enough suitable sites and the costs of those massive plants are staggeringly expensive, with long construction periods.”

“We need to innovate – which means smaller, cheaper, quicker to build reactors, such as the Small Modular Reactor developed by Rolls Royce.”

“And beyond that, other more advanced designs which can be more flexible.”

He added: “We’ve the chance to return to the world’s ‘top table’ of nuclear nations.”

“The question isn’t “can we afford to have new nuclear?”. If we’re to reach net zero and have secure energy supplies, we simply can’t afford not to.”

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