UK: Ten new nuclear power stations

The UK will build 10 new nuclear power stations by 2025, the government said last month. The new facilities will have a combined capacity of about 16 gigawatts (GW), up from present nuclear generating capacity of around 11 GW – most of which is due to shut down over the next 10 years (see Table 1). The new fleet is expected to meet about 25% of the country's projected electricity demand in 2025 – a little under the highest nuclear contribution achieved in the past, in 1998, when nuclear-generated electricity accounted for 29% of the total. Last year, according to the government's Department of Energy and Climate Change, nuclear facilities covered 14% of demand, but the figure is projected t