Recommendation 3

Gigawatt-scale nuclear power stations use a known and well understood technology that can deliver dependable low carbon baseload electricity to the grid. Nuclear power is therefore an important option and could be used to produce a domestic supply of baseload power to the UK as part of the low carbon energy mix required to achieve the Government’s goals of increasing energy security and achieving net zero by 2050. However, the question of energy security must engage with the questions of sourcing of fuel and the risks of having a concentration of generating capacity in very large plants, which could be susceptible to outages as a result of technical problems or as a target for malign actors. The Government’s aim to bring up to 24 gigawatts of nuclear-powered electricity to the grid by 2050 is commensurate with its net zero ambitions but currently lacks a comprehensive plan to achieve it. We welcome the Government’s intention of “building a project pipeline” of nuclear projects but agree with industry that the details of this pipeline must be published by Government, if investments in new nuclear are to proceed in time.