UK nuclear projects delayed by five years due to spurious legal challenges, report finds

LONDON — Spurious legal challenges have added almost five years to the construction timeline for Britain’s planned Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C nuclear power stations, according to a new report from the pro-nuclear think tank Britain Remade. The delays, totaling 1,754 days across the two projects, could cost taxpayers billions as financing costs accumulate on high-cost, long-lead projects.

One Greenpeace-led challenge against Hinkley Point C caused a 150-day delay before it was withdrawn, while the longest pause reached 625 days and only ended after the Supreme Court refused permission to appeal a High Court ruling that favored the Somerset project.

Britain Remade notes that there have been seven separate legal challenges against nuclear projects in the last twelve years, six of which focused on planning. In total, Hinkley Point C faced 866 days of delays and Sizewell C has spent 827 days fighting unsuccessful legal challenges since August 2022. One challenge related to additional coastal flood defences remains ongoing.

Sizewell C was originally projected to cost £20 billion but the price has risen to about £38 billion. Hinkley Point C is expected to cost about £46 billion, illustrating Britain’s status as one of the most expensive places in the world to build nuclear power stations.

The report highlights planning rules and measures such as an acoustic deterrent to prevent fish from entering the reactor’s water intake, a feature critics have nicknamed the “fish disco,” as a factor in higher costs and longer timelines.

In an endorsement of the report, Tory shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho said: “Britain needs growth, but we won’t get that without a lot more cheap, reliable energy. That means building more nuclear, just like we used to. We ended the decades-long stop-start approach to nuclear in government, starting two new plants and signing off a third at Wylfa. But it’s still too expensive to build in Britain.” The Sizewell C project is slated to have the government as the largest equity shareholder with a 44.9% stake, and the reactor is expected to operate in the mid to late 2030s, powering about six million homes for at least 60 years.

Hinkley Point C, in Somerset, was first proposed in 1982 and, after years of paralysis, was given the green light by the government in 2022. It is expected to open by 2031 and generate about 7% of the UK’s electricity in the 2030s. A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesman said: “We are reversing a legacy of no new nuclear power being delivered and modernising outdated regulations to unlock a golden age of nuclear, securing thousands of good, skilled jobs and billions in investment. We have announced a landmark deal for Sizewell C, Rolls-Royce SMR has been selected as the preferred bidder to progress one of Europe’s first small modular reactor programmes, and we announced an agreement between the UK and the US to reduce the time it takes to license a nuclear project from four years to two.”