Nuclear power is unnecessarily expensive

Nuclear power stations have only ever been built with huge subsidies of taxpayers' money. Our nuclear power industry has cost us tens of billions of pounds over the last 50 years. Decommissioning old nuclear power stations is costing us over £70 billion and rising fast. This means that economic benefits may only ever be gained by the shareholders of the nuclear power companies. There is not a big pot of money to pay for nuclear power and renewable energy and efficiency technologies, so having nuclear power in the mix means that money cannot be spent elsewhere$1  
elsewhere. 
 
Government promises that new nuclear power stations will not be subsidised are hollow. The taxpayer will pay for insurance in case of accidents and security measures such as armed nuclear police to secure the sites from terrorist attacks. The taxpayer will also probably have to pay for increased coastal defences because new nuclear power stations are likely to be built on old coastal sites identified as being at increased risk of flooding - especially as the effects of climate change take hold.  
 
hold.  
 
 

Nuclear power is more expensive than fossil-fuel based methods of generation, but less expensive than most other renewable methods. In addition, nuclear plants can be situated near to demand, whereas most renewables, like wind, solar and geothermal, are only efficient in certain areas. The cost of building transmission capacity to provide renewable power to consumers is significant and in many cases, is blocked by NIMBY intrests.