About nuclear
Nuclear power is low-carbon, affordable, dependable, and capable of increasing diversity of energy supply.
It has been part of the UK’s energy mix for the past five decades; as a result most of the existing fleet of nuclear power stations will have reached the end of their lives by 2023.
The 2008 Nuclear White Paper stated that new nuclear power stations should have a role to play in this country’s future energy mix, alongside other low-carbon sources.
How does nuclear work?
Nuclear power stations generate electricity from energy produced by the fission, or splitting, of uranium atoms, which takes place in a nuclear reactor. This process creates very large amounts of energy: per atom the energy released is about 50 million times more than that released from the combustion of carbon.
As of October 2010, there are 441 nuclear power stations in operation worldwide, with a total net installed capacity of approximately 375GW.
How are nuclear power stations fuelled?
The activities associated with the production of electricity from nuclear reactions are referred to collectively as the nuclear fuel cycle. The nuclear fuel cycle starts with the mining of uranium and ends with the disposal of nuclear waste.
Most nuclear fuel is made from enriched uranium (although UK Magnox stations use natural uranium). Uranium in the form of uranium ore concentrate is readily available on the world market from places such as Canada, Australia, Niger, Namibia and Uzbekistan.
Nuclear generation costs
DECC commissions regular updates by independent consultants on estimated electricity generation costs for nuclear and other technologies. Cost data is broken down into detailed expenditure per MW or MWh for the lifetime of a plant, from planning costs right through construction and operating costs to eventual decommissioning costs. The latest independent report for non-renewable technologies was published in July 2011.