Don't Subsidise Nuclear Power

Don't Subsidise Nuclear Power

The government plans to force everybody to pay for new nuclear power stations through their electricity bills, despite promising there would be no public subsidies.

Proposed changes to the electricity market, currently going through parliament, will provide a series of direct and indirect subsidies to the nuclear industry. These include a guaranteed long term price for the electricity produced by new nuclear plants.

This subsidy alone could result in £155 billion being paid over 30 years to EDF for operating the new nuclear power stations planned at Hinkley Point in Somerset and Sizewell in Suffolk.

Every person in the UK could pay an extra £83 per year on their fuel bills to support this.

The proposed changes could also mean nearly £3.5 billion in windfall payments for existing nuclear power stations (like Hinkley Point B).

The government is dressing this policy up as support for all “low carbon energy generation” but its clear purpose is to back more nuclear power.

It's already proposed to subsidise new nuclear power stations by:

Offering operators a fixed unit price for the cost of managing and disposing of their radioactive waste (a subsidy of £400 million+ per new reactor).

Limiting the operators' insurance liability in the event of a nuclear accident like Fukushima , which has already effectively bankrupted the Japanese company running the power station. Paying for commercial insurance could add 40p per unit of nuclear electricity.

Don't let the government throw good money after bad. Rather than increasing our bills to pay for the runaway costs of nuclear power, they should be supporting a clean, sustainable future based on renewable sources and energy saving.

Please send this letter [click here] to the government minister responsible for this policy - Ed Davey, Secretary of State for Climate Change – urging him to abandon all subsidies for nuclear and stick to his original commitment to a nuclear-free future.

You can also send an email to correspondence@decc.gsi.gov.uk