26 Feb 2026, Wall Street Journal
“We are now entering a new phase in the golden age of nuclear,” declared Michael Shanks, a U.K. energy minister, as he recently talked up the country’s plans to attract private investment in new reactors.
His parade was swiftly dampened. Last week, Britain’s first new nuclear plant in three decades cemented its status as the most expensive on record anywhere. The risk is that the U.K.’s contribution to the golden age is a cautionary tale about the cost of these megaprojects as the U.S. advances its own nuclear buildout.
The best-case startup date for HPC was pushed back a year to 2030, compared with a target of 2025 when the project was approved in 2016. The price tag for the 3.2 gigawatt, two-reactor facility now stands at £49 billion in today’s prices, or roughly $66 billion. The 2016 estimate was £18 billion (in 2015 prices).
Even Georgia’s Vogtle plant—$16 billion over budget, seven years late, responsible for a major bankruptcy—cost less, according to the International Energy Agency.