In reaction to the Climate Change Committee’s Seventh Carbon Budget which recommends 11 GW of nuclear power on the grid by 2050 and only 13% firm power in the electricity mix by 2040, Tom Greatrex, Chief Executive of the Nuclear Industry Association, said:
“The CCC’s work on nuclear is flawed and shouldn’t be used as the basis of government policy. The report assumes little progress on nuclear cost improvements despite there being proven models internationally for serial cost reduction. At the same time the report predicts dramatic cost improvements for other technologies including those which are not yet proven to work at scale.
“This winter we have seen the perils of not having enough clean, firm power on the grid with unfavourable weather conditions laying bare our reliance on gas and imported power, leading to huge spikes in carbon emissions and record power prices.
“Full system costs need to be considered including asset length and load factors. Balancing the grid for instance has cost consumers more than £12 billion over the last four years due to shrinking baseload capacity and reliance on unpredictable sources of generation. Building a fleet of SMRs and new gigawatt stations will bring build costs down and generate price-predictable, stable power.
“Nuclear has the lowest carbon footprint of all energy sources, uses the least land and creates jobs in places that really need them, making it vital for the UK’s growth agenda, and as electricity demand doubles by 2050 we’re going to need enough always-on, British power to keep the lights on, emissions down and bills stable.”
ENDS
About the NIA
As the trade association for the civil nuclear industry in the UK, the Nuclear Industry Association represents 300 companies across the UK’s nuclear supply chain.
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