Are the stars finally aligning for the ‘new golden age’ of nuclear? | Nils Pratley
Presidential visits, like investment summits, involve a blizzard of claims about companies set to spend squillions in the UK.Some “commitments” are merely extrapolations of current trends.Some can be filed under “believe it when you see it”.Some involve throwing everything into the mix and producing an implausibly precise number for the “economic value” to the UK.A few pledges are genuinely new, but scepticism should be the default setting.
How to view this week’s “landmark commitments” by UK and US firms to build new nuclear power plants in the UK? Actually, this may be one of those rare occasions when one shouldn’t be too cynical.The announcement deserves attention because it was aimed at one of the biggest impediments to the “new golden age” of nuclear energy: the sheer time it takes to get new projects off the ground.Under the US-UK agreement, each country would recognise the other’s regulatory and safety regime, which should cut duplication in the assessment phase.The idea is that the time taken for a project to get a licence would fall to two years, rather than the current three- or four-year wait.There was also an intriguing deal, albeit an early stage one.
Centrica, the FTSE 100 company which has a slug of the UK’s current nuclear fleet and has bought into Sizewell C in Suffolk, has formed a development agreement with X-Energy of the US to build up to 12 advanced modular reactors (AMRs) in Hartlepool.The aim is to be buzzing by the mid-2030s, which would count as rapid by nuclear’s normal standards.The other significance is that it’s the first time the UK is talking about building AMRs, which are smaller (80-megawatts per reactor in this case) than actual small modular reactors (three of which are on order from Rolls-Royce at 470 megawatts a pop).By way of comparison, giants like Sizewell C and Hinkley Point C consist of two units per project, adding up to 3,200 megawatts.If there is to be serious expansion of nuclear power in the UK, it will probably have to involve the full range of sizes, not just the mega-beasts.
In this case, the government was also able to announce plans for a privately funded off-grid “micro” nuclear plant (which will be smaller still) to serve London Gateway port on the Thames estuary,The enormous qualification, of course, is that economics of smaller-scale reactors are not proven,Nobody has actually built an SMR anywhere and grand claims about the advantages of batch-production in factories are yet to be demonstrated, even if Rolls-Royce sounds confident,All we know to date is that the mega-plants are fantastically expensive,Sizewell C, even though it is a replica of Hinkley Point C and so has its design nailed-down, is still scheduled to come in at £38bn.
And since customers will start paying before it is built, Sizewell C will add more than £200,000 a year to the bills of large corporate energy users (think water utilities, transport operators and retail chains) that do not qualify for exemptions, according to the calculations of the research group Cornwall Insight.Sign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningafter newsletter promotionThus costs must fall across the spectrum if nuclear is to make serious headway.Thinktank Britain Remade calculates that France and Finland are delivering the same design as Hinkley and Sizewell for about half the price; South Korea builds at around one‑sixth of the cost.It has a long list of ideas of how to get costs down, some of which even have a chance of being adopted if the interim report last month from the government’s nuclear taskforce is a guide.It railed against out-of-date regulations and planning frameworks and “risk-averse cultures that prioritise bureaucracy over proportionate safety measures”.
It still takes some believing that rhetoric will be matched by hard action in the face of resistance from community groups and inevitable rows over where new nuclear plants would be located once current sites are used up.But, equally, it is hard to deny the backdrop for new nuclear has improved.There is, first, a recognition that a low-carbon grid can’t run on intermittent wind and solar and batteries alone; second, that the cost of renewables has risen anyway; third, that if you’re going to minimise gas-fired generation, nuclear is the only option for always-on, low-carbon power.The question of costs still towers over everything – but it is (just about) possible that we will look back on 2025 as a significant moment.
Bank of England governor says UK ‘not out of the woods’ on inflation, after leaving interest rates on hold – as it happened
The Bank governor, Andrew Bailey, has warned that the UK is ‘not out of the woods’ in the cost of living squeeze.Announcing today’s decision to leave interest rates on hold, Bailey said:“Although we expect inflation to return to our 2% target, we’re not out of the woods yet so any future cuts will need to be made gradually and carefully.”Food prices have been a key factor pushing up inflation, and there are forecasts that food inflation will rise towards 5.5% by the end of the year.Time to wrap up…The Bank of England has left interest rates on hold at 4% and will slow the pace of its “quantitative tightening” programme in the year ahead to avoid distorting jittery government bond markets
Novo Nordisk shares climb after positive results for anti-obesity pill
The value of the drugmaker Novo Nordisk jumped by about £9bn on Thursday after research showed that taking its new anti-obesity pill can result in almost as much weight loss as its Wegovy jab.The Danish company is racing against its US rival Eli Lilly to get a tablet treatment to market. Shares in Novo Nordisk climbed by more than 6% on hopes that it can claw back market share lost to Eli Lilly and cheaper generic versions of GLP-1 drugs.The shares had fallen by nearly 60% in the past year as sales slowed and Novo issued several profit warnings, prompting its new chief executive, Mike Doustdar, to plan 9,000 layoffs.Novo said on Thursday that a once-daily pill version of Wegovy helped people achieve “significant weight” loss in a clinical trial, with close to one in three participants losing 20% or more weight
Meta announces first Ray-Ban smart glasses with in-built augmented reality display
Meta has announced three new pairs of AI smart glasses, including the first Ray-Bans with a built-in screen for augmented reality.The Meta Ray-Ban Display will be the first smart glasses with a heads-up display from a mainstream brand since the ill-fated Google Glass. They use a classic Wayfarer-like styling to avoid looking too obviously like wearable technology, while still having a camera, speakers and microphone.A small, bright and crisp colour display is projected on to the inside of the right lens, which appears to float just below the wearer’s eye line, and can show anything from text and images to live video calls. The display appears when interacting with the glasses, but isn’t visible from the outside
Google DeepMind claims ‘historic’ AI breakthrough in problem solving
Google DeepMind claims it has made a “historic” artificial intelligence breakthrough akin to the Deep Blue computer defeating Garry Kasparov at chess in 1997 and an AI beating a human Go champion in 2016.A version of the company’s Gemini 2.5 AI model solved a complex real-world problem that stumped human computer programmers to become the first AI model to win a gold medal at an international programming competition held earlier this month in Azerbaijan.In a performance that the tech company called a “profound leap in abstract problem-solving”, it took less than half an hour to work out how to weigh up an infinite number of possibilities in order to send a liquid through a network of ducts to a set of interconnected reservoirs. The goal was to distribute it as quickly as possible
Nottinghamshire stun Surrey, Somerset v Hampshire, and more: county cricket, day four – live
I’m going to write up now for the paper but do chat on BTL.There are four matches in play:In Division TwoGloucestershire are 11-1, and need 147 to beat Northants at Bristol.You’d expect handshakes at Old Trafford soon, where Middlesex are 86 behind but still have seven wickets left. This will, I think, send Glamorgan up.In Division OneDurham need 24 more runs for maximum batting points against Worcestershire
Salt’s fine form adds flavour to question of who opens for England at T20 World Cup | Taha Hashim
Phil Salt’s opening remarks in his post-match press conference were a slight surprise. He had just hit 89 to win England’s series opener against Ireland, following on from his unbeaten 141 last Friday. But his mind was still on the missed opportunity inbetween. “I was quite disappointed at Trent Bridge to not get out there and have a chance to win a series against South Africa,” he said.Rain ruined that decider on Sunday, denying a man who had found form – three consecutive single-figure scores preceded his hundred – and wanted more
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