The Hidden Costs of Nuclear Power: UK’s Route to its 2050 Low Carbon Target

The UK operates 19 reactors that provided 15.7% of the country's electricity needs in 2010. The cost of supplying this electricity is cheap. The big six electricity suppliers make their profit from an industry which provides poor value for money to the taxpayer and leaves us with a toxic legacy that exceeds 1,000 lifetimes. Maintaining the infrastructure surrounding electricity supplied by nuclear fuels is prohibitively expensive. An argument can be made that all ancillary costs must be included in the generation cost of nuclear power in order to calculate a realistic cost per MWh. Were this true picture to be modeled, renewable energy generation becomes a truly compelling economic proposition compared to nuclear power.

Taxpayers have the right to be informed about the real cost of constructing new nuclear power stations as well as the corresponding costs to our health and financial well being. The estimated cost of the hidden subsidies to the nuclear industry in the UK is £3.6 Billion per year. This is the equivalent of 1GWof solar PV installations. These costs are nestled in the budget of governmental bodies like the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC), the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the Department of Health (DoH), the Department for Transport (DfT), the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS), the Home Office, etc. These hidden subsidies will continue to climb as the civil nuclear industry contributes more burden to our toxic legacy with eight new power plants.