Stop Sizewell C condemns Boris Johnson’s visit and support for Sizewell C, speculating that the blessings of an outgoing Prime Minister may be the kiss of death.
Stop Sizewell said:
“Like multiple vanity projects such as the Bridge to Northern Ireland and “Boris Island” airport, Sizewell C is another Boris Johnson infrastructure blowout that his successor should consign to the bin. When every penny matters, it’s totally wrong to shackle the next Prime Minister and billions in taxpayers’ money to this damaging project, whose ballooning cost, lengthy construction, failure-prone technology [1] and long term water supply [2] are so uncertain.”
“Sizewell C would not be British, nor secure. It would be developed by an arm of a foreign government, probably with considerable foreign ownership and be reliant on overseas uranium.” [3]
Stop Sizewell C urges Boris Johnson’s successor to totally review the Sizewell C project. Candidate Liz Truss has said she plans to cancel green levies on bills, but if she were to continue to support Sizewell C, it can only be financed if a nuclear levy is added to household bills.
The burden on households has not yet been revealed. It is likely to be well over the “£1 a month” claimed by BEIS [4] whose calculations ignore inflation. [5] Campaigners speculate that investors will remain wary of risky Sizewell C unless they are guaranteed a generous rate of return during construction. Boris Johnson’s aspiration of eight nuclear projects will massively increase this burden.
The quoted £20 billion cost now appears to be acknowledged as being up to £30 billion, raising the prospects that a greater sum in equity – expected to be approximately one third, with the remainder debt – will be needed. Investors will only be lured to support the project if the very high risks of overspends are taken on by the government and therefore tax and bill payers. In recent weeks Simon Clarke, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, reportedly expressed concern that the scale of the investment required would significantly affect spending and fiscal choices for an incoming government.
Stop Sizewell C added: “A truly visionary legacy for Boris Johnson would be to ditch Sizewell C, which is most definitely not green, and focus on cheaper, quicker renewables and insulation, which are.”
Protestors plan to greet the Prime Minister with placards reading “Wrong Decision” but “It’s not too late” #StopSizwellC.
Notes
- Nuclear projects have a consistent track record of costing more and taking longer to build than planned, especially EDF’s EPR reactor where none have managed to be built to schedule. China’s Taishan I EPR reactor was offline for 12 months because of fuel failure. EDF claims this can be resolved by making the fuel assemblies more robust but the ONR confirmed they were also looking at the circulation of coolant water which is thought to exacerbate the risk of fuel damage. Flamanville continues to be beset by construction problems
- In granting Sizewell C planning consent, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng overruled the Planning Inspectorate who did not recommend the project be consented because the long term water supply was not secured.
- Sizewell B’s current and next batch of fuel, ordered last year, uses enriched uranium from Russia. The invasion of Ukraine has prompted a “scramble” to secure alternative supplies. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/05/21/scramble-stop-russian-uranium-fuelling-britains-nuclear-power/
- https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-finance-model-to-cut-cost-of-new-nuclear-power-stations
- https://stopsizewellc.org/core/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Updated-RAB-calculations-with-inflation-by-Prof-Steve-Thomas.pdf