The Telegraph reported today:
British consumers could pay £17bn ($27.8 billion USD) in potentially unnecessary subsidies to fund construction of the country’s first new nuclear plant in a generation, the European Commission has said.
The EC said it was assessing whether the planned subsidies for Hinkley Point in Somerset – which could exceed the £16bn ($26 billion USD) cost of the plant itself – were needed at all, or whether energy companies would build the plant anyway without a penny of public support.
To be fair, that $26 billion construction estimate is for two reactors, and the cost might go higher, making the subsidy seem smaller. (I’m a Glass-is-half -full-of-radioactive-water kind of guy.)
There may be legal obstacles to the subsidy plan for the project, known as Hinkley Point C:
The Commission said its investigation, which threatens to delay or derail the plant altogether, will assess whether UK plans “to subsidise the construction and operation” of the plant are in line with EU state aid rules.
robertsingleton 