Nuclear Power, Yes Please 

Britain is embarking on a new golden era of nuclear power. 

It has now been three decades since Britain’s last nuclear power station – Sizewell B – opened. But at the GMB Conference in June, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced that a new plant at Sizewell on the Suffolk coast would be built, telling delegates: “This Labour Government is investing in the biggest rollout of nuclear power in a generation.” 

The nuclear power station is expected to generate 3.2 GW of electricity, providing power for the equivalent of 6 million homes and supporting 10,000 jobs. 

The Government’s analysis suggests that the project, estimated to cost £38 billion, could create savings of £2 billion a year. The design is based on the previously agreed nuke at Hinkley Point C, an EPR or European Pressurised Reactor. 

On 22 July, the Government gave the power station the official green light with its final investment decision.  

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said the project would “Deliver a new golden age of nuclear, so we can end delays and free us from the ravages of the global fossil fuel markets to bring bills down for good.”. 

 

So why new nuke? 

There are criticisms of nuclear power – the huge costs of building new nuclear plants and long-lasting environmental effects of nuclear waste to name but two. So why don’t we just use renewables like solar and wind power? 

Britain has been switching away from fossil fuels towards renewables. One potential problem with this is that the sun doesn’t always shine and it is not always windy.  

This may have unexpected consequences for the grid. In power systems, mechanical inertia – such as the physical spinning of a turbine in a thermal power station- is used to provide stability. In a nuclear power station, turbines spin at a regular frequency helping maintain a consistent voltage across the grid. 

As Britain and other countries move towards more variable renewable energy, such as solar and wind power, this leads to a reduction of inertia in the grid.  

Some suggest that recent power outages, such as the widespread Iberian blackout in April 2025, may have been caused by this loss of inertia. However, Spanish grid operator REE said this was not the main cause. In its analysis of the outage, it said “The system’s inertia in this incident is irrelevant because the system was already doomed by the massive loss of generation.” 

 Energy security and cost of living  

The need to build new nuclear capacity was brought home by the war in Ukraine which showed just how dependent Europe is on Russian gas. Energy prices increased dramatically after the full-scale invasion in February 2022. The invasion, plus the aftermath of the Covid pandemic, saw energy prices spike in that year. In the UK, typical household energy bills increased by 54% in April 2022 and 27% in October 2022. 

These increases fed directly into the cost -of -living crisis. The Labour Government sees the nukes as a way to wean Britain off this gas. 

 

Decarbonisation and life cycle emission  

Yet perhaps the biggest attraction of nuclear is how it helps in the decarbonisation of energy generation. 

Nuclear fission– splitting atoms like uranium-235 to release energy – does not directly produce carbon emissions, unlike burning gas or coal. 

That’s not the full story though. It is important to look at carbon emissions across the whole lifecycle of an electricity generation project – i.e. from building a power station or wind farm through to decommissioning, not just the generation process itself  

There is some uncertainty around the exact figures but using a variety of sources, the average carbon emissions from nuclear are around 29 tonnes of CO2e per gigawatt hour. This compares to 888 for coal, 499 for natural gas, 85 for solar and 26 for both hydroelectric and wind. 

As a result, nuclear is expected to help Britain on its journey towards net zero.  

When Sizewell C was announced at the GMB conference, Warren Kenny, the union’s regional secretary, called the announcement “momentous.”. 

He added: “Sizewell C is absolutely vital for the UK’s energy security. Nuclear power is essential for clean, affordable, and reliable energy – without new nuclear there can be no net zero.” 

At Procode, we are fully engaged with the journey to net zero and recognise the role that nuclear power has to play in it. We are already helping Britain get to a carbon-free future through our work with the UK’s smart meter network and products like Smart Datastream that help energy suppliers and other companies access that rich trove of information. 

As managing the UK’s grid gets more complicated and it has needs to have new sources of generation, including nuclear, there is a risk that we may see more outages.  

Our view is that by getting to grips with the huge increase of data this entails, we can ensure the grid remains resilient to outages and consumers benefit from lower prices due to smarter usage of their energy.