The staggering price of nuclear

Posted: 14th August 2026

Cost creep or cost leap? The staggering price of nuclear. In the fourth and final part of our serialisation from LINDA PENTZ GUNTER’S book No to Nuclear, she asks how anyone can see nuclear as value for money given its constantly ballooning costs. Cost creep is a universal affliction in the nuclear power industry and sometimes it isn’t so much creep as leap. The two-reactor nuclear power plant at Hinkley Point C on the UK coast went from an estimated $19bn to $26bn, then $35bn, $40bn and now $59bn! By the time you read this, the number will likely be even higher. That makes the plant — consisting of two evolutionary power reactors (EPRs) — the second most expensive building in the world, after the Great Mosque of Mecca, which cost more than $100bn. And the most expensive power plant ever.

Morning Star 12th Aug 2026

https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/cost-creep-or-cost-leap-staggering-price-nuclear