Lawyers say legal delays could prevent UK from realising its ambitions for new nuclear reactors at Hinkley Point C by 2023
Plans for a new generation of nuclear reactors in the UK have been dealt a fatal blow by Austria’s decision to launch a legal challenge to the EU’s approval of a £17.6bn subsidy deal, according to the Green Party.
On Wednesday, the Guardian revealed that Austria will appeal the EU’s decision last year to approve the subsidy deal between the UK government and EDF for Hinkley Point C.
Hinkley would be the first new nuclear reactor in Britain for two decades if built, although it would come with a price tag of £24.5bn and electricity generated from the plant would be paid double the market rate through levies raised on household energy bills.
But no final investment decision has yet been signed and legal delays now seem likely to prevent the government from realising its ambition for Hinkley to produce 7% of the nation’s electricity by 2023.
“I think that this [Austrian] court case is certainly going to delay the signing and also the construction of Hinkley,” said Molly Scott Caho, the Green Party MEP for the South West region, which includes Hinkley. “As one of the government’s main arguments for Hinkley was that it would solve the ‘energy gap’ before renewables could be brought onstream, it is a fatal blow to Hinkley as part of a future energy strategy for the UK.”
It was David Cameron who first described the signing of the Hinkley deal as marking “the next generation of nuclear power in Britain”, for its ability to meet energy demand and contribute to long-term security of supply.
Natalie Bennett, the leader of the Green Party, said that such claims now seemed risible. “I think we have seen the final generation of nuclear power, I am very pleased to say,” she told the Guardian. “It’s gone, it’s dusted. Lets focus on evidence-based renewables and energy conservation futures.”
