Hinkley Point B started generating low-carbon electricity in 1976 and since then has safely produced more than 300 TWh of power – enough to meet the electricity requirements of every home in the UK for three years.

Peter Evans, the plant’s director, said: “This station has delivered more low-carbon energy during its lifetime than any other UK nuclear station. This is an outstanding achievement and a testament to the dedication of all those who have worked here over the decades. When work started on this generation of nuclear reactors in the 1960s, few could have anticipated how important it has become to generate our power with little or no emissions. Over its life, this station has helped the UK avoid millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide going into the atmosphere and provided rewarding jobs for thousands of people and supply chain partners across Britain.”

In 2012, EDF extended the estimated generating life of Hinkley Point B by seven years, from 2016 to March 2023. Today’s announcement means the site will stop generating just a few months ahead of this and over 15 years longer than originally planned in the 1960s.

The station suspended power generation in June 2020, in order to undertake extensive graphite inspections and conduct maintenance. EDF has developed the safety case required to re-start operations and this will soon be with the Office for Nuclear Regulation for review. Further generation is wholly conditional upon the regulator’s approval.

Once Hinkley Point B stops generating power for good, EDF will take on defuelling the station, the first stage of the nuclear decommissioning process and one expected to take several years. The company said that defuelling will involve continued use of its teams and specialist supply chain companies.

Matt Sykes, Managing Director of EDF Generation, said: “Running a nuclear power plant this efficiently for over 40 years leads to changes in the reactors. Our inspections of Hinkley’s reactor cores this year show that the graphite blocks are in exactly the sort of condition we predicted they would be at this stage in the station’s lifetime.

“As a responsible operator we feel it is now the right thing to do to give clarity to our staff, partners and community about the future life of the station, which is why we have made this proactive decision. I would like to pay tribute to all those associated with Hinkley Point B for their outstanding professionalism and wish them well with the next chapter.”

EDF is building two EPRs at Hinkley Point C and developing plans for a replica plant at Sizewell C, in Suffolk.

Tom Greatrex, chief executive of the UK’s Nuclear Industry Association, said EDF’s announcement was a reminder of the urgency of investing in new nuclear capacity to meet the government’s target of net zero by 2050.

“Hinkley Point B has produced more clean electricity and saved more emissions, 105 million tonnes, than any other single power station in British history. It can only be replaced by new nuclear stations that produce the same reliable, always-on, emissions-free power that Hinkley has provided for more than 40 years,” he said.

“The nuclear projects already in the pipeline can deliver this backbone of clean power and will generate tens of thousands of secure, skilled and well-paid jobs across the country. We hope that the government will support its announcements on large and small-scale reactors this week by setting out a clear path to progress new nuclear capacity in the forthcoming Energy White Paper.”

Courtesy of WNN

The inclusion of nuclear power reflects advice that the Nuclear Innovation Research and Advisory Board (Nirab) gave in a recent report for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Nirab said there that it would be prudent to plan for nuclear energy to provide at least half of the firm low-carbon electricity not provided by renewables.

The plan announced today also includes a previously announced pledge to quadruple offshore wind power capacity by 2030, to 40GW, and “to turn water into energy” with up to GBP500 million of investment in hydrogen. It also includes investment of more than GBP2.8 billion in electric vehicles and establishing a new world-leading industry in carbon capture and storage, backed by GBP1 billion of government investment for clusters across the North, Wales and Scotland. The government’s GBP1 billion energy innovation fund will help commercialise new low-carbon technologies, Johnson said, such as the world’s first liquid air battery, and the City of London will become the global centre for green finance through the sovereign bond, carbon offset markets and disclosure requirements.

Writing in the Financial Times today, Johnson said the 10-point plan “will turn the UK into the world’s number one centre for green technology and finance, creating the foundations for decades of economic growth”. His government will establish a “task force net zero” committed to reaching net zero by 2050, and through next year’s COP26 summit it will urge countries and companies around the world to join the UK in delivering net zero globally. “Green and growth can go hand-in-hand,” he said. “So let us meet the most enduring threat to our planet with one of the most innovative and ambitious programmes of job creation we have known.”

Tom Greatrex, CEO of the UK’s Nuclear Industry Association, welcomed the scale of the ambition indicated by the plan, noting that more details will come in the Energy White Paper, which is expected later this month.

“Meeting net zero while delivering long term, skilled jobs, economic growth and export potential are the opportunities for the country. Low-carbon technology working together – not being pitted against each other – is the right approach to take,” Greatrex said.

“We welcome the government setting a 2030 target for low-carbon hydrogen production. Nuclear power can produce clean, ‘green’ hydrogen without any carbon emissions, so it has a critical role to play in developing the hydrogen economy. We hope the government will support ‘green’ hydrogen, since our goal is to use hydrogen to reduce emissions. There is no use in deploying hydrogen if we have to emit large amount of carbon to create it,” he added.

Ian Liddell-Grainger, chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on nuclear energy, said new nuclear power will “dramatically cut our emissions and generate thousands of good, highly skilled jobs across this country”. He added: “I look forward to the government setting out the detail in the Energy White Paper, and getting new projects over the line.”

One of those projects is Sizewell C, the proposed new nuclear power plant on the Suffolk coast. This will be a near replica of Hinkley Point C (HPC), which EDF Energy is building in Somerset and, like HPC, it will be able to supply 7% of the UK’s electricity once it enters commercial operation.

EDF’s UK CEO Simone Rossi said the 10-point plan is “a game changer and we are right behind it”, not only for nuclear, but also for wind, solar, storage, hydrogen, electric heating, energy saving and electric vehicles. He added that HPC is providing GBP14 billion of work to the UK supply chain.

Sizewell C Managing Director, Humphrey Cadoux-Hudson, said Sizewell C is the only large-scale nuclear project ready to begin construction in the UK. “We look forward to moving ahead quickly with the government on an innovative funding arrangement to achieve best value for money for consumers,” he said.

Courtesy WNN

Horizon was to develop two UK Advanced Boiling Water Reactor units at the site in North-West Wales, with the intention to contribute to the energy policy of the UK government, as well as maintaining the business foundation that supports the nuclear industry in Japan.

On 16 September, however, Hitachi announced it will end its business operations on the Wylfa project, which it had suspended in January 2019, and Horizon said it would take steps for the “orderly closing down” of all its current development activities.

Horizon subsequently wrote to the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), saying it was now in talks with “third parties”. Its two letters to BEIS were published on the Planning Inspectorate’s website yesterday.

On 22 September, Horizon CEO Duncan Hawthorne wrote to Gareth Leigh, head of energy infrastructure planning at BEIS, requesting the delay to a decision on the Development Consent Order (DCO) for the Wylfa project. Hawthorne wrote that “a short extension to the decision deadline would be beneficial to enable Horizon to work constructively with its key stakeholders to ascertain the options for the Wylfa Newydd DCO Project and secure its future”.

On 28 September, Hawthorne wrote that Horizon was “engaged in discussions with third parties that have expressed an interest in progressing with the development of new nuclear generation at the Wylfa Newydd site”. He added: “These discussions are still at an early stage and it is felt that a short deferral would allow time for Horizon and those interested parties to determine whether, and if so, how the Wylfa Newydd DCO Project could be taken forward in Hitachi, Ltd’s absence.” He did not give details of these interested parties, noting the discussions are “commercially sensitive”.

In an open letter to local communities in North Wales on 25 September, Hawthorne wrote that the Wylfa Newydd site “remains the best in the UK, if not the whole of Europe, for new nuclear power development”.

He added: “I cannot say today what the next steps will be. What I can tell you is that I, and my team at Horizon, will do our utmost, along with our stakeholders and supporters, to make sure the opportunities that Wylfa Newydd represents, can still be taken.”

Courtesy of WNN

Hitachi said it had made the decision to exit the project given that 20 months had passed since the suspension, and the investment environment had become “increasingly severe” owing to the impact of COVID-19.

The Horizon Project was to develop two UK Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) units at Wylfa Newydd in North-West Wales, with the intention to develop Hitachi’s nuclear business in the UK and contribute to the energy policy of the UK government, as well as maintaining the business foundation that supports the nuclear industry in Japan, Hitachi said.

It had decided to suspend the project in January 2019, from the viewpoint of its “economic rationality as a private company” because it was clear that further time was needed to decide on a financing structure for the project, and the conditions for building and operating the nuclear power plants.

Hitachi said it would coordinate with the UK government and relevant organisations regarding its cooperation as the owner of the ABWR licence and the handling of the planned construction sites and other matters. This decision is not expected to have a significant impact on Hitachi’s business results as Hitachi had posted an impairment loss and other expenses of JPY294.6 billion (USD2.8 billion) on consolidated financial results for fiscal 2018, the year ending 31 March, 2019 due to the suspension of the project.

“Hitachi expresses its deepest gratitude to the UK government, the Wales government and residents, the Japanese government and other stakeholders for their continued support and cooperation. Hitachi will continue to contribute to improve social, environmental and economic value and people’s quality of life through its Social Innovation Business, including the energy business,” the Tokyo-headquartered company said. Its Social Innovation Business combines information technology, operational technology and products.

Since the project was suspended, Gloucester-based Horizon said it had “maintained the capability to remobilise” in the event that a new financing model was re-established. This includes more than 10 years of stored project data and knowledge, applications for permits and licences and a small core team of staff and contractors.

Horizon CEO Duncan Hawthorne said Wylfa Newydd and Oldbury were “highly desirable” sites for new nuclear build and that Horizon would do its “utmost” to facilitate the prospects for development, which would bring “major local, national and environmental benefits that nuclear can uniquely deliver as we push to transition to a net-zero carbon economy by 2050”.

Hawthorne said in August that Horizon wanted clarity from government on its nuclear strategy and a potential funding model by the autumn, when ministers had been expected to publish a delayed energy white paper and national infrastructure strategy. If sufficient commitment isn’t forthcoming, Hawthorne conceded it would be “easy” for Hitachi to “say we’re out of here” and sell the site, “raising fears China General Nuclear could potentially move in”, according to his interview with the Financial Times.

Urgent need for progress

Tom Greatrex, CEO of the UK’s Nuclear Industry Association, said today’s announcement was disappointing news that “nevertheless underscores” the urgent need for progress on new nuclear projects in the UK if the government’s net-zero by 2050 target is to be achieved.

Greatrex said: “Wylfa is probably the best site in the UK for new nuclear capacity, and has strong community and stakeholders support on Ynys Mon [Welsh for Anglesey]. It is imperative that a way forward is found for the site, to deliver thousands of jobs, hundreds of apprenticeships and millions of pounds of investment into an economic boost for the area while delivering secure, reliable and low-carbon power to underpin the UK’s transition to net zero.”

No electricity generation source had avoided as many carbon dioxide emissions as nuclear power has, “while generating skilled, stable and long-term employment”, he said. “The government can secure these economic and environmental opportunities for future generations by setting out a clear pathway for new nuclear power in forthcoming policy announcements.”

The country’s sole nuclear new-build project – the twin-EPR Hinkley Point C, in Somerset – is being funded by the French utility EDF and its partner in the project, China General Nuclear Power Corp (CGN), with a contract-for-difference already agreed with the previous UK government to provide long-term price stability for the generator once the plant begins generating (but leaving construction and operating risk with the investors). The regulated asset based model that is being considered would apply to future plants, of which as many as five had been planned – by EDF Energy together with CGN; Horizon; and NuGeneration (NuGen).

EDF and CGN plan to develop projects to build new plants at Sizewell in Suffolk and Bradwell in Essex, the latter using Chinese reactor technology, the HPR1000.

Hitachi-GE’s UK ABWR completed the Generic Design Assessment process with UK regulators in December 2018. The ABWR design is already licensed in Japan and the USA. Four units have been built in Japan and two are currently under construction on Taiwan. The two ABWR units Horizon planned to build at Wylfa Newydd would have been the first commercial boiling water reactors in the UK.

Supply chain

Unlike state-owned EDF Energy and CGN, the other UK new nuclear developers – Horizon Nuclear Power and NuGen – are private investor vehicles. Established in 2009 and acquired by Hitachi in November 2012, Horizon aimed to provide at least 5.4 GWe of new capacity, expecting the first unit at Wylfa Newydd to be operating in the first half of the 2020s. NuGen, the UK joint venture between Japan’s Toshiba and France’s Engie, planned to build a nuclear power plant of up to 3.8 GWe gross capacity at Moorside, in West Cumbria, using AP1000 nuclear reactor technology provided by Westinghouse Electric Company, a group company of Toshiba. In November 2018, Toshiba – by then the sole owner of NuGen – announced it was withdrawing from the new-build project, and NuGen was wound up.

The Moorside site itself, which NuGen bought from the UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority in 2009, remains designated by government for nuclear new build. In June this year, a group of companies, trade unions and individuals launched an initiative to develop a Clean Energy Hub centred on a package of nuclear projects at Moorside, in north-west England. The proposal is based on projects including a new 3.2 GWe UK EPR plant, as well as small modular reactors and advanced modular reactors, with links to technologies including renewables and hydrogen production.

In July, a group of 32 companies and organisations from the UK nuclear supply chain announced they had formed a consortium to encourage the government to support a state-guaranteed financing model for Sizewell C, EDF and CGN’s proposed new nuclear power plant on the Suffolk coast.

The Sizewell C Consortium said today’s news of Hitachi’s withdrawal from the Horizon project would have “serious ramifications” for companies both in Wales and across the UK.

“The Wylfa nuclear project would have been another important milestone for the UK’s nuclear supply chain and would have created thousands of jobs. Unless Sizewell C, a replica of the under-construction Hinkley Point C, is given the go-ahead, there is now a serious risk to the future of the UK’s civil nuclear construction capability and the tens of thousands of jobs that go with it.”

Courtesy WNN

Matom Ltd and AFL Services seal the deal at the Australian High Commission London

Nuclear specialists from the UK and Australian industrial/defence specialists joined forces in London to formalise a multi-million pound agreement set to benefit businesses on both sides of the hemisphere.

UK based Matom Ltd met with Adelaide headquartered AFL Services to sign a Memorandum of Understanding between the two companies in the presence of The Hon. George Brandis QC, Australian High Commissioner, Bill Muirhead AM, Agent General South Australia and Cheryl Dennis, Welsh Government.

The meeting at the Australian High Commission marks the beginning of a minimum five-year teaming agreement matching skillsets within the UK sector with the delivery of hazardous sites management across the UK, Europe and Australasia.

Matt Tuck, Managing Director of Matom Ltd, said: “Matom is an established SME with diverse international and domestic experience across sectors where high hazardous challenges exist. We work in the nuclear sector in Australia in environmental clean-up and decommissioning and AFL is focused on oil and gas and Ministry of Defence work. Matom will support this work with technical and operational services.”

“This partnership is a significant opportunity for Matom. I am confident it will lead to significant growth for us as a company and provide new jobs and apprenticeships within Wales and across the UK.”

Based in Conwy, North Wales, Matom Ltd is an established provider of decontamination solutions, radiological protection and risk management. The company has 20 years of experience supporting the life cycle of nuclear power and industrial plants in the UK, Europe, Middle East, United States, Canada, and the former Soviet Union.

Adam Levi, General Manager at AFL Services, said: “AFL is a respected provider of engineering management services in challenging environments across industrial sectors in Australia.

“We are pleased to be signing this partnership with Matom as we believe it will work as a vehicle to expand our capability with a company with a similar ethos and ambition.”

AFL Services was founded in 1994 and provides services to defence and industrial sectors within Australia. It has ambitions and the capability to work further afield in structural remediation and protection in onshore and offshore environments.

The final used nuclear fuel has been shipped from the Wylfa site on Anglesey, in Wales, the UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) said today. The milestone marks the end of a programme to defuel all of the country’s Magnox sites.

Magnox reactors are graphite-moderated, gas-cooled and use all-metal, slightly enriched uranium fuel. They can trace their roots back to the earliest days of nuclear technology: the world’s first commercial nuclear power station, Calder Hall, was a Magnox reactor. The design takes its name from the magnesium alloy cladding used on the uranium fuel. The UK built a fleet of 26 Magnox reactors.

Wylfa is the biggest and last Magnox site to be built in the UK. Its twin 490 MWe reactors began commercial operation in November 1971 and January 1972, respectively. Unit 2 was permanently shut in April 2012, with unit 1 following in December 2015. Since the end of generation, the site’s main focus has been to empty both reactors and send all the remaining used fuel to Sellafield for reprocessing.

The NDA announced today that the final flask of fuel had been removed from the site and sent by rail to Sellafield. A total of 87,890 fuel elements – each measuring 43 inches (1.1 metres) in length – have been removed from the Wylfa reactors since the plant ended generation.

Wylfa Site Director Stuart Law said, “It has not been an easy task and the work at Wylfa is far from complete, but today is a significant landmark in the journey towards care and maintenance.

“The defuelling process was hampered by ageing equipment for the first 18 months which brought challenges, but the dedication and problem-solving abilities of the Wylfa team and expertise drawn from across the nuclear industry led to what is, overall, an incredible performance in completing the task.”

Removal of all the fuel from a site is one of the main pieces of hazard reduction work and accounts for over 99% of the radioactivity, the NDA noted. It added that the completion of Wylfa’s defuelling programme is “a huge stride” towards the end of all nuclear fuel reprocessing at Sellafield, scheduled for 2020.

“This is a major decommissioning milestone and a clear demonstration that we are making progress in dealing with the UK’s civil nuclear legacy,” said NDA Chief Executive David Peattie. “The successful completion of the Magnox defuelling programme is testament to the hard work and commitment of the highly skilled workforce across the whole of the NDA group.”

Wylfa is the final Magnox plant to complete its defuelling programme, following the completion of that at Calder Hall earlier this month. “Wylfa will now join the rest of the Magnox sites in becoming wholly focused on decommissioning and clean-up,” the NDA said.

Magnox Ltd CEO Gwen Parry-Jones said: “As the final Magnox site to defuel, this marks a significant landmark for Magnox Ltd as a whole in carrying out our mission to safely decommission our fleet and marks a new focus on the next phase for the whole company.”

Magnox Ltd is the management and operations contractor responsible for 12 nuclear sites and one hydroelectric plant in the UK. Under contract to the site owner, the NDA, the company is responsible for the decommissioning of Berkeley, Bradwell, Chapelcross, Dungeness A, Harwell, Hinkley Point A, Hunterston A, Oldbury, Sizewell A, Trawsfynydd, Winfrith and Wylfa nuclear sites as well as non-nuclear electricity generation at Maentwrog.

Courtesy WNN

Calder Hall, at what is now the Sellafield plant in west Cumbria, was opened by the Queen in 1956.

Hailed as the dawn of the atomic age, it produced electricity for 47 years and stopped generating power in 2003.

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) said the news brought the multibillion-pound clean-up operation at Sellafield a major step closer.

When the station was switched on, nearby Workington became the first town in the world to receive heat, light, and power from atomic energy.

• First reactor could become museum
• Calder Hall legacy will ‘live on’
• Calder Hall demolition under way

Calder Hall’s Magnox design was the template for Britain’s first generation of nuclear power stations and the technology was exported around the world.

The NDA is overseeing work at the site, which is due to be fully decommissioned in 2120 at a cost of more than £70bn.

Stuart Latham, head of remediation for Sellafield Ltd, said: “This is a truly iconic moment.

“Calder Hall was the birthplace of the civil nuclear industry. It inspired the world and put our site at the forefront of the atomic age.

“Completing the defueling programme is an important moment for Sellafield.”

Removing fuel from Calder Hall’s four reactors was a complex task.

A total of 38,953 spent fuel rods had to be retrieved, with the same machines used to load fuel into the reactors during its operational life used to pull it out.

Once removed, the fuel was cooled in a storage pond and any reusable uranium and plutonium reprocessed.

Calder Hall’s reactor buildings will now be placed into a state known as “care and maintenance” and fully decommissioned and demolished.

Courtesy BBC News

Magnox, which manages the decommissioned site, applied for permission to bring waste from three UK power stations to the site by road.

But Somerset County Council voted unanimously to refuse the plans.

Magnox said it was disappointed the council had not agreed with the recommendation for approval.

Under current planning conditions, only waste generated on the Hinkley A site – which is currently under construction- can be stored there.

The company had applied to change the rules so it could transport and temporarily store waste from Oldbury in Gloucestershire, Dungeness A in Kent and Sizewell A in Suffolk.

It had wanted to make a total of 46 deliveries of “intermediate waste”, such as used nuclear fuel containers, by road through Bridgwater.

Despite being recommended for approval, the council’s regulation committee voted unanimously to oppose the application.

‘No benefit’

Councillor Simon Coles said approving the plans would send a message that more of the Hinkley A storage facility could become home to waste from other parts of the UK.

Brian Smedley, of Bridgwater Town Council, said the plans would have “no economic, social or environmental benefit” to the town.

A spokesman for Magnox said it was considering what its next steps would be. “Magnox is disappointed that the committee has not agreed with the planning officer’s recommendation for approval,” he said.

“We will continue to talk to our stakeholders and they will be kept informed about our plans.”

Hinkley Point C, which is being built near the old Hinkley A and B stations, will have its own separate temporary waste storage facility.

Courtesy BBC News

Rolls-Royce and its partners have said a UK SMR programme could contribute GBP100 billion to the UK economy and open up a global export market. The consortium comprises Rolls-Royce, Assystem, SNC Lavalin/Atkins, Wood, Arup, Laing O’Rourke, BAM Nuttall, Siemens, National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) and Nuclear AMRC.

“Our design will bolster the UK’s ambitions to tackle climate change while taking a further step towards creating an estimated 40,000 British jobs, reinvigorating a vital part of the country’s advanced manufacturing base and potentially generating hundreds of billions of pounds in export revenues,” the British engineering firm said. “By working with the consortium, led by Rolls-Royce, the government has “laid the foundations for a homegrown nuclear power plant industry.”

The company added that this will: provide the reliable and affordable electricity that Britain needs to lead the world in the drive towards net-zero carbon emissions; further bolster the take-up of other renewable energies, by providing reliable power, helping to guarantee Britain’s energy security and position as a leading innovator in low-carbon technologies; inspire a new generation of young engineers, chemists and physicists, draw upon the expertise of the country’s world-leading universities and create valuable intellectual property; offer opportunities to revitalise parts of Britain’s heavy industry and unlock prosperity across the UK regions through the construction and operation of power stations and advanced manufacturing facilities; open up employment opportunities within the SMEs that will be needed both in the manufacturing supply chain and support areas.

“Funding from the government will be matched in part by contributions from the consortium and by attracting third-party investment. The investment is needed to mature the design, address the considerable manufacturing technology requirements and to progress the regulatory licensing process,” Rolls-Royce said. “It will also give companies within the UK supply chain the confidence they need to plan investments in capability so that the UK’s low-carbon energy industry can become a global player, matching the Government’s ambitions for the country to be a global leader in tackling climate change.”

There have already been expressions of interest from other countries, it added, reinforcing the consortium’s confidence in the potential scale of the export opportunity, which it says could be more than GBP250 billion.

The design’s technical and commercial foundations have been validated, it said, by the UK Research and Innovation team’s assessment for the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund; the independent assessment by the government’s Expert Finance Working Group; and by due diligence led by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

In a separate statement, Tom Jones, vice president of international business development at Assystem, said: “This early investment in the design phase will be key for the country’s economy as well as its ambition towards achieving net zero and tackling climate change.”

Courtesy of WNN

In a new document, the government outlined its new financing strategy for nuclear including Sizewell C, Suffolk.

It said it has proved “challenging” to fund nuclear energy plants since the Hinckley Point build in Somerset.

A new funding model would require all UK electricity customers to pay in advance through their bills.

It also allows investors to receive returns before the projects have been completed.

It would mean “a fair sharing of costs and risks between consumers and investors” with a regulator to oversee, said the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, (BEIS)

But Sizewell protest groups are planning to oppose the Regulated Asset Base (RAB) funding method being consulted on by government over the next 12 weeks.

‘Value for money’

Theberton and Eastbridge Action Group (TEAGS), Minsmere Levels Stakeholder Group (MLSG) and the B1122 Action Group who oppose the new Sizewell plant said:

“Most of EDF’s projects have over-run and over-spent, so there is a high risk of even more costs being passed on to householders and taxpayers.”

According to BEIS “few project developers have a balance sheet that can accommodate the £15-20bn cost of delivering a new nuclear project.

It said investors are now unwilling to invest during the building phase given the long construction period and risk of cost increases and delays.

“We are therefore looking to work with the sector to develop an alternative funding model for new nuclear projects that can attract private finance at a cost that represents value for money to consumers.”

In 2016 the government gave the go-ahead for Hinckley Point C nuclear plant to be built which has seen costs increase.

“A RAB model has the potential to reduce the cost of raising private finance for new nuclear projects, thereby reducing consumer bills and maximising value for money for consumers and taxpayers,” said BEIS.

RAB has already been used to finance some large infrastructure projects, including the £4.2bn Thames Tideway “super-sewer”.

Courtesy of BBC News