New nuclear projects can give coal sites new lease of life
Aberthaw in South Wales, the home of a former coal power station, could be developed into a nuclear power site
The recent closure of the UK’s last coal power station has brought the curtain down on an industry that has helped bring jobs and prosperity to communities across the country, but it also marks a generational opportunity for those communities most affected by the closures, with green industries like nuclear giving hope for new jobs and greater investment.
Britain has been turning off coal power stations for a long time, but instead of replacing these stations with new cleaner technologies, many remain untouched – just big old hulks and relics of a bygone era. To leave them like that would be a terrible waste.
We should have been replacing dirty baseload coal a long time ago, not with fossil gas like we have been doing, but instead, with the only clean source of baseload power we have: nuclear.
Nuclear is the only like for like replacement for coal and gas which is zero-carbon. It’s weather-proof, available 24/7, and vital for our energy security and net-zero targets. But instead of getting on with building new reactors, all we have done in the last decade is approve enough new nuclear to make up for the nuclear we have lost in the last 36 months as ageing stations come offline.
Former coal power sites like Aberthaw in South Wales, and around 20 others, are perfect for new projects like nuclear, with their excellent grid-connections, access to cooling water and host communities built on industry that now need new jobs and fresh opportunity.
It’s already happening in the US where a recent report by the Department of Energy said that recently shuttered coal plants and ones that will soon retire could provide space for over 170 gigawatts of new nuclear power.
It will be a big missed opportunity if we don’t consider doing the same. There needs to be an honest and open conversation with communities about the various different options nuclear brings, from Small Modular Reactors to power towns and communities, including hospitals and schools, or even smaller Advanced Modular Reactors, to power heavy industry, or data centres or even steel production. They all come with the promise of good, long-term jobs, locked in for 70, 80, even 100 years.
The nuclear sector needs a clear long term strategy that covers all this, as well as projects like Sizewell C and further gigawatt stations, potentially at Wylfa, where there is a community desperate for a new nuclear project.
Becoming the first G7 nation to phase out coal is no mean feat, and whilst we haven’t made the same progress as France when it comes to clean power generation – it has one of the world’s cleanest power grids thanks to 65 gigawatts of nuclear – we are way ahead of many other countries, including Germany which has one of the EU’s dirtiest power grids due to a reliance on coal.
So amidst all the end of coal self-congratulation, we should also remember the knock on effect of this milestone on communities right across Britain, which is why we should be advocating for a national coal-to-nuclear programme to bring back jobs, investment and opportunity to the places who can help drive the energy transition.
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