Join the Labour Party and save your country!

They can pay me £1m to write "cheaper emission free energy = good".

Depends what you are comparing it to, and how many newts you need to avoid displacing.

Very much lower than current environmental regulations.

Worth keeping up to date on both of those in Private Eye. Could be as big a problem (if not bigger) as/than HS2.

I thought Sizewell C hadn't started yet?

Either way it's taken absolutely ages. I think it's a drawback of our planning system, rather than simply Conservatives bad. However, the conservatives have had years to improve these things.

Does anyone actually care about newts? Aren't they just a convenient planning obstacle in the eyes of NIMBYs

How so? The tax payer hasn't currently paid anything whilst EDF have suffered big cost overruns

Ah, I didn't say which taxpayers... it might be the French, according to this report:

"Two former EDF executives told the Guardian the odds were stacked against Hinkley from the start. “I would have bet at the time that we would see the costs we have today. And I think they’ll climb higher too,” said one.

Philippe Huet, a former head of EDF’s internal auditing in Paris, said the deal was based on political strategy rather than a commercial rationale. The British government offered EDF a contract that would guarantee payment of £92.50 for every megawatt hour of electricity generated by the nuclear plant. It was criticised for being both eye-wateringly expensive for UK bill payers but not nearly enough to cover the risks of constructing the project.

At the time that it was agreed it was already known that EDF’s estimates understated the cost and schedule of the project. Key decision-makers chose to ignore this because it was too important strategically. As they would say, if a project cannot be profitable it must at least be strategic,” Huet said.

Hinkley is one of many costs facing the French taxpayer after the government renationalised EDF last year. The company’s future investments – in maintaining its existing fleet of nuclear reactors, building new ones, and investing in renewable energy – could exceed €20bn (£17bn) a year, according to Agnès Pannier-Runacher, the country’s energy transition minister.

The French government is reportedly calling on the UK government to provide financial help for both Hinkley and the next planned plant, Sizewell in Suffolk, to keep the struggling nuclear revival afloat. The UK government has been quick to quash any suggestion that Hinkley’s financial fallout will be borne by UK taxpayers. A spokesperson said the government “plays no part in the financing or operation of Hinkley Point C”, which was a matter for EDF and its shareholders.

Huet has predicted that EDF may even try to renegotiate its contract with the government. He estimates it could seek to raise how much it charges per megawatt hour of electricity produced by about 15% to make Hinkley a worthwhile venture."

So it looks like a case of 'watch this space'.

Incredibly expensive for everyone, but the UK will pay the agreed exorbitant price. Really can't see the point of nuclear.

Very expensive inflexible power. What's the point of base load if you can't turn it off?

Err, it's base load, so coveers the constant power need.

What we need for tidal to be developed is more vested interests. 😉

It’s not as reliable, no?

The tide is, but I think the difficulty is building turbines robust enough to withstand a working life in the Severn.

Maybe not, the volume of water that moves each hour in a tidal sequence is:

1/12, 2/12. 3/12, 3/12, 2/12, 1/12