In the early 2010s, a lobbying campaign against new nuclear in the U.K. basically started, including people like the deputy prime minister [1] complaining that it was too slow and renewables would be faster and it wasn’t necessary.
Fast forward to 2022 and we still don’t have enough renewables, the UK is not very windy at the moment so there’s not enough base load capacity, and we only have 3 active coal fired power stations left. Oh, and we’re in an energy crisis and France, which is normally a net exporter to the U.K., is needing to import energy, making the crisis even closer. It would have been pretty useful to have had a new nuclear power station online right about now.
Fast forward to 2022 and we still don’t have enough renewables, the UK is not very windy at the moment so there’s not enough base load capacity, and we only have 3 active coal fired power stations left. Oh, and we’re in an energy crisis and France, which is normally a net exporter to the U.K., is needing to import energy, making the crisis even closer. It would have been pretty useful to have had a new nuclear power station online right about now.
[1] https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2011/03/nuclear-power-...