ONLY ONE UK NUCLEAR POWER plant of any kind that is operating today will still be in operation in 2050. That will be Sizewell B - if it is subject to a successful long term operation programme. In the meantime, Britain needs to build the equivalent of four times its current electricity sector, bringing on about 10GWe of clean power capacity each year, every year, from 2025 until it meets the net zero deadline of 2050. That is equivalent to three Hinkley Point Cs per year, or 720 of the largest available wind turbines. The chairman of the Nuclear Industry Association, Tim Stone, painted this picture of the pace and scale of the development needed in the energy sector in his opening remarks to the association's Nuclear 2021 conference in London on 2 December. He concluded that coming decades were "about collaboration, not competition" between clean energy sources because there is simply so much to do.
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