Boris Johnson will on Monday sketch out to industry bosses what one minister called his “gung ho” approach to boosting Britain’s nuclear power sector, as officials draw up plans that could target a fivefold increase in capacity by 2050.
The prime minister vowed this month to make “a series of big new bets on nuclear power” and government insiders say this could imply the construction of at least half a dozen big new stations between 2030 and 2050.
Rishi Sunak, chancellor, last week applied the brakes to Johnson’s plans to set out an energy security strategy this week, amid Treasury fears about the cost to the public purse. New nuclear power stations each require close to £20bn to build and the industry is prone to cost overruns.