Government spending on nukes

DESNZ’s annual expenditure? Not least as the

details of this (on p.18 of its 2024-2025 Annual Report & Accounts) are
completely mind-blowing. To summarise: Total departmental spend: £8.6
billion; Total spend on nuclear power: £5.1 billion (60%); Total spend on
everything else: £3.5 billion (40%) See what I mean? Literally
mind-blowing! A few more details on the nuclear side of things: Nuclear
Decommissioning Authority: £3 billion (dealing with the legacy of past
nuclear programmes). Support for Sizewell C power station: £1.67 billion.
UK Atomic Energy Agency (UKAEA): £400 million (doing bonkers stuff like
nuclear fusion). Managing our ‘Energy Legacy’: £85 million (roughly half
the total figure). Great British Nuclear: £26 million (the more or less
useless quango overseeing this fiasco). That’s the size of the nuclear sink
hole: roughly £5.1 billion! Leaving roughly £3.5 billion for everything
else, including all direct support for renewables, ‘delivering affordable
energy’, science, research and ‘capability’, as well as other arm’s
length bodies. Moreover, even that low figure is not quite what it seems:
roughly £450 million is set aside for another of Ed Miliband’s sink holes,
namely Carbon Capture and Storage.

Jonathon Porritt 21st Oct 2025

https://jonathonporritt.com/uk-nuclear-subsidies-desnz-spending/