Category Archives: News

Redirect Sizewell C funding to the Warm Homes Plan, say campaigners

Campaigners call on Rachel Reeves and Ed Miliband to stop Sizewell C, redirect its funding to generate ‘Warm Homes’ jobs in every constituency by the next election.

Building Sizewell C would likely cost around £40bn over the next 15 years. Deducting money already spent, if Sizewell C is cancelled now, the public money saved by 2030 would be £7.1bn.

A paper from Stop Sizewell C and the Green New Deal Group  calls for this saving to be added to the £6.6bn the government is committed to spend in the current Parliament on energy efficiency in the nation’s homes. Turbocharging this ‘Warm Homes Plan’ by more than doubling its budget will generate long term, secure jobs, particularly for young people across the UK. It will be quick to implement, so by the next election new jobs and cheaper, warmer, healthier homes will have appeared in every constituency.

Alison Downes of Stop Sizewell C said: “The taxpayers’ money being ploughed into risky, expensive Sizewell C – which will inevitably soar higher due to cost overruns and building delays – would be far better spent improving the lives of households nationwide, bringing down their bills, and helping the UK meet its net zero target”.

Colin Hines of The Green New Deal Group said: “At absolutely no extra cost to the nation’s finances Rachel Reeves and Ed Miliband could stop funding the nuclear white elephant that is Sizewell C and not only improve the living conditions for homes in every constituency, but create jobs in every constituency, thereby improving their chances of winning the next election.”

Sizewell and warm homes report

 

NGOs urge Chancellor not to allow China back into UK nuclear projects

For immediate release, 9 January 2025
NGO members of the DESNZ Nuclear NGO Forum [1] call on the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, not to allow China back into the UK’s nuclear industry during her forthcoming visit. NGOs cited energy and national security concerns, and warned of the danger in using money from a state that does not share British values to prop up the nuclear industry, UK nuclear being unable to provide value for money or be a solution to the climate emergency.
The Chancellor is believed to be seeking Chinese investment into the UK, but there is no information as to whether nuclear energy is on her agenda. State-owned China General Nuclear (CGN) remains a partner with EDF in Hinkley Point C in Somerset. [2] However CGN was ejected by the last government from Sizewell C in Suffolk [3] and its proposals to build a reactor of its own design at Bradwell in Essex [4] are moribund.
“It would be an outrageous u-turn of true desperation if Rachel Reeves was to go cap in hand to China to find funders for Sizewell C” said Stop Sizewell C and Together Against Sizewell C. “Where is the energy security in a nuclear power plant funded by China? [5]  Ministers should recognise that Sizewell C is essentially unfinanceable, and call a halt to it right now.”
Stop Hinkley added: “The skyrocketing cost of Hinkley Point C – from £18 billion to over £40 billion in 11 years – is no justification to beg for Chinese money, especially when Hinkley C is highly unlikely to be generating electricity by the government’s target date of 2030 for decarbonising the UK’s electricity grid. [6] We urge the Chancellor to keep silent on nuclear energy during her visit.”
For more information contact:
Alison Downes, Stop Sizewell C
Chris Wilson, Together Against Sizewell C,
Katy Attwater, Stop Hinkley,
Notes
1. The DESNZ Nuclear NGO Forum members are: Low Level Radiation and Health Conference, Bradwell B Action Network, Stop Hinkley, Blackwater Against New Nuclear (BANNG), Stop Sizewell C, Cumbria Trust, Together Against Sizewell C (TASC), Ayrshire Radiation Monitoring Group, Highlands Against Nuclear Power, Nuclear Free Local Authorities, Friends of the Earth Nuclear Network, Low Level Radiation Campaign, West Cumbria and North Lakes Friends of the Earth, Stand Against Oldbury (STAND).
2. China General Nuclear (CGN) took a 33% share in financing Hinkley Point C until the initial investment ceiling of £18 billion[2015] was reached in January 2023. https://www.edf.fr/sites/groupe/files/2023-07/2023-07-27-half-year-results-book-presentation.pdf. CGN is understood not to have put any more money in since 2023. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-12-13/hinkley-point-nuclear-plant-in-uk-stops-getting-funding-from-china-s-cgn, as the project’s expected total (overnight) costs have skyrocketed to well over £40 billion[2024].
3. CGN had a 20% share in Sizewell C November 2022 when the Conservative government bought it out, reportedly for over £100 million. https://www.ft.com/content/a9a34ea3-649f-4a47-a4c8-ee269e07eccc
4. In 2020 CGN had, as a major shareholder in partnership with EDF, begun a planning and consultation process at Bradwell B, proposing to build twin “UK Hualong” reactors with a total generating capacity of 2.2GW. CGN’s HPR1000 reactor design was granted Generic Design Approval by the Office for Nuclear Regulation in February 2022, but site planning ceased in February 2021.
5. House of Commons paper on UK China relations https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-10029/
6. The Clean Power Plan 2030 does not assume that Hinkley is online by 203o, saying “there are uncertainties associated with having
Hinkley Point C online by the end of the decade, given delays in the past few years”. Page 80 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/677bc80399c93b7286a396d6/clean-power-2030-action-plan-main-report.pdf