Could South Korea build nuclear cheaply in Britain?

I have a new article in the Spectator looking at the exciting prospect of South Korea building a new nuclear power station in Anglesey in Wales.

Here’s an excerpt:

Why is our government so keen to speak to the Koreans? Put simply, it’s their track record. South Korea builds nuclear power plants for less than any other country in the world. 

Britain Remade, the campaign group I work for, looked at every single nuclear plant built (or under construction) since the year 2000. The analysis showed that not only does South Korea have the lowest inflation-adjusted costs per megawatt produced, they can build nuclear power plants for six times less than it is costing us to build Hinkley Point C.

One nuclear analyst told me that this analysis actually understates South Korea’s cost advantage. Not only are South Korea’s plants built cheaply per megawatt, they are extremely reliable too. According to data from the International Atomic Energy Association, South Korea’s plants are on average more than five times less likely to lose capacity due to unplanned outages (such as engineering faults) than their French and British counterparts. Only Belarus has a worse record for lost nuclear capacity than the UK.

You can read the full article here.