UK became Most Expensive Place to develop Nuclear Power
24th Nov. 2025
The Government Commission declared “UK as the world’s costliest country to develop nuclear power plants”. The statement came after they reviewed its “overly complex” regulatory system, which is increasing the cost and hinder progress. “We need a radical reset of nuclear strategy that helps the government to make the project efficient and safe”, the Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce has stated.
How Regulatory Failures Lead to Delays and High Nuclear Costs
The review advocates for the creation of a “one-stop” nuclear commission with centralized authority over unified decision-making. Over the warning, Taskforce Chair John Fingleton said, “Our solutions are radical, but necessary.” “By simplifying regulation, we can maintain safety standards and deliver nuclear capacity safely, quickly, and affordably,” he added. On the other hand, the UK government is likely to talk about the findings later this month in the budget.
Meanwhile, the country wants to hit its net-zero goal by 2050 and build a new generation of nuclear power plants to meet rising energy needs. In the meantime, only about 15% of its energy comes from nuclear power, and they promised to triple the nuclear capacity by 2050. Eight of Britain’s 9 existing reactors will shut down by 2030. As full-size reactors take a long time to build, Britain is also set out to build small nuclear power plants.
Globally, we can see that nuclear energy is getting more attention and starting discussions among the business fraternity. Japan wants nuclear power to provide 1/5th of its energy by 2040, and France plans to build at least 6 more reactors. China is building close to 30 already. Germany, on the other hand, has shut down all of its reactors to focus on hydrogen and other green energy sources. Public debate is still quite heated, due to past nightmares such as the 1969 Chernobyl and Fukushima.
Web Resources on UK as costliest country to build Nuclear Power
1. Gov.uk: Nuclear Regulatory Review 2025
2. BBC.com: UK ‘world’s most expensive place’ to develop nuclear power
3. AcademicBlock.com: Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster