As soon as EdF decided to go ahead with the new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point, the new prime minister threw a wobbly and it is now going to be reviewed in the autumn. Hinkley Point has a budget of £29 billion but it is untried technology and it could cost the taxpayer £50 billion after the usual budget over-runs and it will sell electricity to the nation at TWICE the going wholesale cost.
The Sizewell B reactor cost £2 billion to build (it was finished in 1995) and has almost one-half the planned output of Hinkley Point. It would make more sense to build 3 reactors to the tried and tested Sizewell B formula at an inflation-adjusted cost of £3.5 billion each. But 40-odd per cent more power than Hinkley Point could supply for £10.5 billion is probably more sense than the government can handle.
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