MENAI BRIDGE, Wales, March 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --
- New report says there are five major areas of risk in putting money into new nuclear plants
According to a new report from the Energy Fair group (PDF, bit.ly/zGgbHF), anyone considering investing in new nuclear plants faces five major areas of risk: market risk, cost risk, subsidy risk, political risk and construction risk.
By the time any new nuclear power plant could be built in the UK, the market for its electricity will be disappearing. The rapidly falling cost of renewables, with the likely completion of the European internal market for electricity means that consumers, large and small, will be empowered to generate much of their own electricity or to buy it from anywhere in Europe.
Nuclear power is expensive and costs are rising. Meanwhile, the cost of most renewables is falling.
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By the time any new nuclear plant could be built in the UK, the market for its electricity will be disappearing.
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Nuclear power depends heavily on subsidies but these may be removed at any time via formal complaints to the European Commission, or via legal action, or via the actions of politicians.
The next nuclear disaster - and the world has been averaging one such disaster every 11 years - is likely to lead to more decisive actions by politicians against nuclear power.
The building of nuclear power stations is notorious for overruns in time and costs. With the added complexity of new safety systems after Fukushima, construction risk will remain a major hazard for investors for the foreseeable future.
The commercial opportunities are in renewables. They are growing fast while nuclear power is shrinking.
NOTES
1 A full version of this news release, with notes, may be seen via bit.ly/wbyCWi.
2 The report from Energy Fair, called "The financial risks of investing in new nuclear power plants" may be downloaded as a PDF file from bit.ly/zGgbHF.
3 An Arabic translation of the full version of this news release is here: bit.ly/y5OWK5 (PDF).
4 Contact: http://www.energyfair.org.uk or sg.sg/wL2NrJ
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