Nuclear subsidies

• Subsidies for nuclear power in the UK government's proposals for electricity market reform 1 - this report by Energy Fair describes how the UK government's proposals for electricity market reform add up to a huge new raft of subsidies for nuclear power. "The Energy and Climate Change Committee, amongst others, has said that the proposals have the effect of introducing new subsidies for nuclear power. The purpose of this document is to examine the new proposals to identify and describe those parts of the proposals that have the effect of creating new subsidies for nuclear power.". The 13-page report is available as a PDF.
• Nuclear Subsidies - Energy Fair reviews the scale and structure of subsidies to the nuclear industry. "The purpose of this report, prepared by the Energy Fair group, is to highlight the several subsidies for nuclear power, many of which are hidden from view. As detailed later, calculations by actuarial specialists show that withdrawal of just one of those subsidies (limitations on liabilities) would increase the price of nuclear electricity to levels that would make it entirely uncompetitive ...". Updated September 2011.
• The UK′s new energy future - Damian Carrington reports for The Guardian on how Chris Huhne set out the government's plan for cutting the UK's carbon emissions, while keeping the lights on. And how EDF are "beaming" at the outcome: huge subsidies at the consumer's expense specifically designed to favour nuclear power. Published 12 July 2011.
• The shocking truths about nuclear waste - in which Low Carbon Kid shows that 58% of DECC's entire £2.8 billion budget (2010-11) is handed over to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority to deal with the waste and decommissioning of the UK's 19 existing nuclear reactors (£1.7 billion). And that the total 100-year cost (National Audit Office, January 2008) of £73 billion equates to over £1,000 for every man, woman and child in the UK (and of course 100 years is just the beginning of a very long journey through time). And that CoRWM, the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management, opposes new nuclear build because we still don't know what on earth to do with the waste we already have ...
• Nuclear power is the reason for the new energy regulations - Catherine Mitchell lifts the lid on the complex web of subsidies the Government is planning for nuclear power. Published in The Guardian, 11 March 2011. "The government wants nuclear power but cannot be seen to subsidise it, so it has had to set up this set of convoluted measures. Why the government wants nuclear power so badly, given all the unwanted outcomes and given nuclear can, at best, only provide a small proportion of the low-carbon energy needed is a mystery. That enigma will hurt those who have to pay a higher price for electricity."
• Funding to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority - PQ from Hansard of 16 September 2010.
  David Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what funding his Department has allocated to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) for 2010-11.
  Charles Hendry: [...] The 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR07) settlement provided the NDA with £1.7 billion direct Government funding for 2010-11.
• Hidden subsidies and new nuclear - an excellent report by Greenpeace into, well, hidden subsidies for nuclear power. Published June 2010.
• Subsidising nuclear - our own summary page on this key topic.