... as talks start on taxpayer-funded new nuclear plant

BRITAIN is in talks with French energy giant EDF to fund a £ 20billion nuclear power station on the Suffolk coast as part of the Government’s push towards low-carbon energy.

Sizewell C, to be built alongside the current Sizewell B, could generate enough electricity for six million homes.

But campaigners have blasted the project as ‘ridiculously expensive’ and based on an ‘unproven reactor design’.

There are also fears that taxpayers will face an enormous bill if costs spiral as they have with EDF’s similar Hinkley Point C plant in Somerset, which has been beset by delays. The original cost estimate of £19.5billion has grown to as much as £22.5billion.

The Government has struggled to get nuclear projects off the ground and yesterday’s announcement is the first confirmation that it is considering putting taxpayers’ money into in Sizewell C

Business Secretary Alok Sharma said it did not amount to a ‘green light’ for construction to begin and the Government had not yet made an investment decision. He told the BBC: ‘We will only do so if this delivers value for money for taxpayers and consumers.’

The project may soon suffer a huge funding hole because China General Nuclear, which holds a 20 per cent stake, is planning to drop out following Britain’s decision to exclude Chinese tech giant Huawei from developing 5G networks.

EDF hopes to start building in early 2020. The plant could create 25,000 construction jobs and 900 permanent ones while generating seven per cent of Britain’s electricity.

But Alison Downes, of the Stop Sizewell C campaign, said: ‘The idea that it could provide value for money is pie in the sky. Sizewell C remains too slow and expensive.’

The RSPB and Suffolk Wildlife Trust says the plant could have ‘devastating consequences’, destroying animal habitats and pumping toxic chemicals into the sea that would kill millions of fish each year.

TRUMPETING an ambition to make Britain carbon neutral by 2050 is one thing. Making it happen while also keeping the lights on is quite another.

Demand for power is expected to double over the next 30 years, as millions of motorists switch to electric cars.

Renewables such as wind and solar, though becoming more productive, simply won’t fill the gap in time. And with high-emitting fossil fuels (which account for 40 per cent of power supply) being phased out, expanding nuclear is the only realistic option.

So it’s no coincidence that the Government announced the start of talks to build the new Sizewell C reactor on the same day it published a White Paper setting out its vision for our green future.

But this won’t be finished until early next decade – and even then will fulfil only 7 per cent of our needs. Hinkley Point C, currently under construction, will provide about the same, but that still won’t be enough.

More nuclear capacity i s desperately needed and a private consortium led by the UK’s flagship engineering firm Rolls-Royce could be part of the solution.

With sufficient backing, its Small Modular Reactors – mini-nuclear plants – could be built around the country on existing manufacturing hubs, at a fraction of the price and in less than half the time.

Along with intensive focus on renewables and hydrogen, this kind of exciting technology may yet allow ministers to achieve their green ambitions. If they fail to harness the power of innovation, however, our zerocarbon future is little more than a fantasy.