UK gets 'go-ahead' for nuclear plant 240km from Ireland

The final go-ahead has been given by the European Commission for a new £16bn nuclear power station in the UK, according to Greenpeace.

Commissioners are meeting today to consider giving final approval for the plant to be built by EDF Energy at Hinkley Point in Somerset.

The commission has been examining funding for the power station under state aid rules since December.

Greenpeace said 16 commissioners had voted in favour, although there was no confirmation from the commission.

Previously, An Taisce lost a legal challenge to the development, which is 240 kilometres from the Irish coast.

Greenpeace's legal adviser Andrea Carta said: “This is a world record sell-out to the nuclear industry at the expense of taxpayers and the environment.

“It’s such a distortion of competition rules that the commission has left itself exposed to legal challenges.

“There is absolutely no legal, moral or environmental justification in turning taxes into guaranteed profits for a nuclear power company whose only legacy will be a pile of radioactive waste. This is a bad plan for everyone except EDF.”

The EC said that during its investigation, the UK authorities demonstrated that the support would address a genuine market failure, dispelling the Commission's initial doubts.

“In particular, the promoters of the project would not be able to obtain the necessary financing due to its unprecedented nature and scale,” said a statement.

The Commission said it found that the initial guarantee fee which the operator would have paid to the UK Treasury was too low for a project with this risk profile

The guarantee fee was “significantly” raised, reducing the subsidy by more than £1bn and procuring the UK Treasury an equivalent gain.

After the Commission’s intervention the gains generated by the project will be better shared with UK consumers, and if the construction costs turn out to be lower than expected, the gains will also be shared.

The two reactors at the new power station will produce in total 3.3 GW of electricity – the largest output produced by a single plant in the UK and representing 7% of UK electricity generation.

The UK will need about 60 GW of new electricity generation capacity to come online between 2021 and 2030 due to the closure of existing nuclear and coal power plants.

The Hinkley Point nuclear power station will use the EPR technology which is not yet operational anywhere in the world. There are only three projects currently under construction in France, Finland and China which will rely on this technology.