Britain’s nuclear U-turn puts us in a very lonely club | Fred Pearce

Pumping £5bn into a new plant in north Wales as a way to fight climate change is a solution at odds with the rest of the worldFor once, ministers have put their money where their mouth is – into taking another stab at nuclear power. This week the business secretary, Greg Clark, announced plans to pump £5bn into a new nuclear power station at Wylfa in north Wales. It was a reversal of a longstanding Conservative policy not to underwrite nuclear construction. So why the sudden enthusiasm? And what does Clark know that the rest of the world does not?For almost everywhere else, governments and corporations are pulling the plug on nuclear. Even in a world fearful of climate change, in which nations have promised to wean themselves off fossil fuels by the mid-century, almost no one wants to touch nuclear. Related: UK takes £5bn stake in Welsh nuclear power station in policy U-turn Related: Hinkley Point: the ‘dreadful deal’ behind the world’s most expensive power plant Continue reading...