{"id":159323,"date":"2025-06-05T04:46:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T04:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/159323\/"},"modified":"2025-06-05T04:46:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T04:46:09","slug":"britain-prepares-to-go-all-in-on-nuclear-power-after-years-of-dither-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/159323\/","title":{"rendered":"Britain prepares to go all-in on nuclear power \u2014 after years of dither \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIssues like nuclear cooperation are issues where we can work together with the U.S.,\u201d Miliband told POLITICO last month<\/a>. \u201cWe might be doing it with a different perspective \u2014 but we can work together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump last weekend announced a series of executive orders aimed at firing up U.S. nuclear power, at the same time tech giants like Google and Microsoft lobby on both sides of the Atlantic for government-backed SMRs to help run their energy-scoffing data centers.<\/p>\n

One litmus test of the Treasury\u2019s approach will be how many firms are awarded an SMR contract, amid fears officials will ultimately plump for a single winner. \u201cI think everybody on the inside knows that it should be two SMR winners. And that would include Lord Hunt, it would include the department, [and] probably the Treasury when they’re being honest,\u201d said the second energy figure quoted above.<\/p>\n

But ultimately, said the same person, the Treasury has no choice but to act. \u2060<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a coincidence of two factors \u2014 Sizewell C and SMRs \u2014 and one event: the spending review,\u201d they said. In a few weeks’ time, the government lays out its spending plans for the next three years. Leave big nuclear decisions any longer, the same person argued, and the Treasury\u2019s financial planning will be wrecked.<\/p>\n

\u2060\u201dYou have to make a decision and clarify Sizewell C. The investment is so big that [if they hold off any longer] the Treasury\u2019s numbers won\u2019t make sense,\u201d they argued.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is an urgency [inside the Treasury] to be building new nuclear power, and also an urgency to be building all different kinds of power for energy security supply,\u201d said one union figure who had discussed future nuclear investment with ministers.<\/p>\n

The spending review may be the moment urgency replaces inertia. \u201cI think there has to be big announcements to move that forward,\u201d the union figure said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIssues like nuclear cooperation are issues where we can work together with the U.S.,\u201d Miliband told POLITICO last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[748,1194,28,6215,2814,32054,2438,12495,32,17790,33,35,3975,393,7159,4884,1195,2207,806,1197,807,11582,1144,1303,5111,67352,7061,23422,712,811,1199,27005,1201,16,15,49,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-159323","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-budget","12":"tag-buildings","13":"tag-cooperation","14":"tag-data","15":"tag-data-centers","16":"tag-department","17":"tag-development","18":"tag-donald-trump","19":"tag-ed-miliband","20":"tag-elections","21":"tag-energy","22":"tag-energy-security","23":"tag-england","24":"tag-fossil-fuels","25":"tag-great-britain","26":"tag-growth","27":"tag-hospitals","28":"tag-industry","29":"tag-investment","30":"tag-keir-starmer","31":"tag-lobbying","32":"tag-northern-ireland","33":"tag-nuclear-power","34":"tag-parliament","35":"tag-philip-hunt","36":"tag-procurement","37":"tag-roads","38":"tag-scotland","39":"tag-security","40":"tag-services","41":"tag-tony-blair","42":"tag-trade","43":"tag-uk","44":"tag-united-kingdom","45":"tag-united-states","46":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}