Case Against New Nukes - Oxford University

Posted: 31st August 2026

Dr Bettina Wittneben, Lecturer in Management at Oxford’s Saïd Business School and Associate Fellow at Pembroke College and the School of Geography and the Environment, sets out four risks that policymakers should weigh before committing to new nuclear capacity. Despite recent enthusiasm for nuclear power, a close examination shows that the risks of increasing nuclear capacity are high. Policy makers and the public need to consider four types of risk: climate, security, capacity and financial risks. As Europe experiences climate impacts such as heatwaves and drought, several nuclear power plants have had to be at least partially shut down to accommodate low water levels and risks to aquatic life in natural water systems. When a nuclear plant is shut down, it continues to draw on electricity generated elsewhere to avoid a meltdown. Given that global heating is a reality today, nuclear power generation is no longer a viable long-term option in hotter temperatures and drier climates. In Britain, we have had to come to terms with the fact that an approaching wildfire could have catastrophic consequences for a nuclear power plant. As we have seen in Ukraine and now also in the UAE, nuclear power plants are favoured sites for drone and other attacks and can be the scene of intense battles. A small drone exploding on the radiation shield of the ill-fated Chernobyl nuclear reactor caused major global concern as repairs to this vital safety structure are risky, and the associated costs of maintaining safety are extremely high. In many European countries national grids cannot cope with these peaks of production meaning that electricity is either wasted or diverted if it cannot be stored. Nuclear power plants, which are slow and costly to turn off, only amplify our grids’ Hellbrise challenge. Back in 2011, the Fukushima accident turned the public against nuclear power in Germany. Over the past decade, the nuclear industry has reeled from this.
The solution from this industry is to build smaller, modular reactors, with the aim of diminishing risks and reducing costs via economies of scale.
Unfortunately, this reasoning is flawed. Nuclear waste is expensive to store safely, and engineers continue to struggle to identify long-term waste disposal sites.

Oxford University 20th Aug 2026

https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2026-08-20-expert-comment-new-nuclear-capacity-wont-fix-todays-energy-problems