It is a year since Horizon Nuclear Power, a company owned by Hitachi, confirmed it was pulling out of building the £20 billion Wylfa nuclear power plant on Anglesey in north Wales.
The Japanese industrial conglomerate cited the failure to reach a funding deal with the UK government over escalating costs, and the government is still in negotiations with other players to try and take the project forward.
Hitachi’s share price went up 10% when it announced its withdrawal, reflecting investors’ negative sentiment towards building complex, highly regulated large nuclear power plants.
With governments reluctant to subsidise nuclear power because of the high costs, particularly since the 2011 Fukushima disaster, the market has undervalued the potential of this technology to tackle the climate emergency by providing abundant and reliable low-carbon electricity.
For the rest of this article: https://theconversation.com/uranium-what-the-explosion-in-prices-means-for-the-nuclear-industry-168442