KICK NUCLEAR February 2026

Posted: 13th February 2026

SIZEWELL B

Sizewell B nuclear power station’s single nuclear reactor was joined to the National Grid in 1995, with no new UK nuclear reactors having been added since. This means that, apart from Sizewell B, there are only four even older nuclear power 2-reactor stations still operating in the UK and it is intended that all four should be shut-down by 2030.

Meanwhile just two 2-reactor nuclear power stations are currently in construction, Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C though neither are expected to be finished and connected to the grid before 2030 – Hinkley C in about 2030, after 14 years in construction, Sizewell C in the middle to late 2030s, after building started in 2025.

Sizewell B was originally intended to shut down in 2035 after 30 years in operation, but this would have left just two UK nuclear power stations in operation after 2030, assuming Hinkley C will be connected to the grid then, and only two after 2035.

There are plans by the UK government for large numbers of Small Modulated Reactors to be built, but these are only at the planning stage and none are expected to be operational until the mid-2030s at the earliest.

This leaves an embarrassing gap for a government that has heralded a UK “nuclear renaissance”.

In an attempt to partly fill this gap, plans are afoot to extend the lifetime of Sizewell B for another 20 years, to 2055, which would mean it being operational for a full 50 years.

Electricité de France and the UK company Centrica have offered to invest £800m in the work required to extend the life of Sizewell B until 2055 but only if the government guarantees a long-term price for the electricity the power station produces and shows its support for the project by investing in it, which it has indeed done by investing some £18bn in it.

It has been claimed that the strike price for electricity from Sizewell B could be below the £89 to £91 per megawatt hour (MWh) secured for offshore wind electricity, reflecting the cost of extending the life of an existing nuclear power plant rather than building a new one. However this compares with a £72.24/MWh strike price for onshore wind electricity and £65.23 for solar produced electricity.

SIZEWELL C

In December 2025 the High Court refused Together Against Sizewell C (TASC)’s request for a judicial review of the UK government’s decision to build Sizewell C.

TASC has now submitted an appeal against this refusal.

TASC’s spokesperson, Chris Wilson explaining TASC’s grounds for this appeal said, “The High Court’s judgement finding favour with the government’s decision to assist Sizewell C in delaying public scrutiny and environmental assessment of EDF’s secret sea defences until they are needed [editor’s italics] risks catastrophic consequences if these flood defences are not considered.

“This government’s ‘first duty’ is to keep its citizens and national infrastructure safe, yet here they are choosing to press ahead with Sizewell C in the knowledge that the £40 billion project, as approved in the [Development Consent Order giving permission for Sizewell C to go ahead] is not resilient to the impacts of an extreme climate change scenario over its full lifetime to the late 2100s. This is contrary to the government’s own National Policy statements EN1 and EN6 (note 1) and the UK’s Habitat Regulations… As this government is the largest single investor with a 45% shareholding, one would expect them to hold Sizewell C to account – not to assist them in avoiding public scrutiny and assessment of the additional sea defences now.

“Recent rapid erosion along the Suffolk coast should be a wake-up call to government that the power of the sea cannot be ignored. At Thorpeness, only 2km from the Sizewell C site, as much as 27 metres of cliff have been lost in just a few months, with homes being demolished. And it has been acknowledged that there has been a ‘relative increase in erosion over the last few years’ in front of the Sizewell C site, meaning that the beach may need recharging now, before the plant has even been built!

“It is imperative we all speak up for future generations, who have no voice in the decision-making of today, to ensure it is demonstrated that there is a viable option to keep the site and its spent fuel safe for its full lifetime. Otherwise, they will be forced to clear up the mess from ill thought-out choices made by government today.”

“We now have the absurd situation that Sizewell C are still claiming that the additional sea defences are only ‘hypothetical’ yet this flies in the face of Sizewell C’s November 2025, Revision 6.0, Site Data Summary Report (recently obtained by TASC under an FOI request) “...to meet the Office for Nuclear Regulation’s requirements for the plant’s site safety case…the impact of more severe sea level rise associated with credible maximum climate change is mitigated by the adaptability of the sea defence height and the ability to introduce overland flood barriers to protect against flooding around the other sides of [Sizewell C’s] site platform [for the reactors] in the case of sea level rise exceeding the reasonable foreseeable scenario up to the credible maximum.”  In TASC’s view, both claims by Sizewell C cannot be correct!”

Note 1. Extract from National Policy Statement EN6: “Based on the advice of the relevant Nuclear Regulators, the INP [Infrastructure Planning Commission] should be satisfied that the applicant is able to demonstrate suitable flood risk mitigation measures. These mitigation measures should take account of the potential effects of the credible maximum scenario in the most recent marine and coastal flood projections. Applicants should demonstrate that future adaptation/

flood mitigation would be achievable at the site, after any power station is built, to allow for any future credible predictions that might arise during the life of the station and the interim spent fuel stores…”

The items on Sizewell B and C were adapted from TASC mailings. To contact TASC, e-mail the secretary on 01728 830965.