A Manifesto for 2024

[Witton Park]

Er, which taxes will the Witton Park Party be raising to fund this? The optimistic estimate in February 2021 was for £1.8 billion per SMR. So with at least 10 percent inflation, and the fact that large info structure projects seem to end up eventually costing 3 x what was originally said, we're looking at around £48 billion. That's about the same amount of money as is currently being spent to build the London-Armitage (Staffordshire) high speed railway.


https://world-nuclear-news.org/Artic...very-of-UK-SMR

Well for one this is part of my manifesto - a package, but let's break this down.

£1.8 Billion for an SMR works out at around £40-£60/MWh over the 60 year life. The whole life cost is very good.

Offshore wind is currently £73 (with pressure to increase as there's been no uptake) and floating Offshore Wind at £176.

Offshore wind don't bear the cost of transmission connection and don't bear the cost of the backup, so this very much at the lower end of the cost to consumer for wind.

So it's quite feasible for a State owned private enterprise run in a similar way to EDF to go and borrow commercially, or borrow from Government, and sell in to the grid at (say) £65 and be financially sound.

It would be as carbon neutral as is possible if that's what floats your boat.

It's also reliable baseload to stabilise the grid.

If the Govt does invest in this, it is investing in infrastructure, something good old Gordon Brown used to tell us was a good reason to borrow.