Is Britain finally going nuclear?

As late as 1965, Britain had more operational nuclear reactors than the rest of the world combined. Yet, Britain hasn’t built a new nuclear reactor in almost 30 years. France and South Korea now standout as the world leaders in building nuclear power stations. Indeed, when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining, we rely on France to send us some of their excess nuclear power to keep the lights on.

Nuclear power is vital for our energy security. It runs whatever the weather. It makes us less reliant on the volatile gas market. It’s clean too – producing power without CO2 emissions. And unlike renewables, nuclear has a very small land footprint. To produce the same amount of power over a year as Hinkley Point C, you would need a solar farm twice the size of Oxford.

The case for investing in new nuclear power plants like Sizewell C – as Keir Starmer is reportedly now poised to do – is strong, but there’s been one big hurdle: cost.