“Nuclear power is heavily subsidised, and even on the British government’s terms that is wrong,” said Gerry Wolff, coordinator of the Energy Fair group which lodged the complaint with the EU's Competition directorate-general.
“They’ve said repeatedly that nuclear power shouldn’t receive any subsidies,” he told EurActiv.
Energy Fair argues that the cap on liabilities that the British and other European governments provide to the nuclear industry constitutes an unfair subsidy.
If withdrawn, they say it would leave the nuclear industry uncompetitive in comparison with other low-carbon technologies.
“It has been calculated that, if nuclear operators were fully insured against the cost of nuclear disasters like those at Chernobyl and Fukushima, the price of nuclear electricity would rise by at least €0.14 per kWh [Kilowatt hour] and perhaps as much as €2.36,” a press release on the group’s website says.
By contrast, wind electricity in the UK retails at around €0.14 per kWh.
State intervention
Nuclear advocates maintain that the chances of a catastrophic accident are so remote - and the sums involved so massive – that state intervention to cover an unlikely eventuality is prudent, and a practical way of moving towards a low-carbon economy.
But Wolff said that even at a ratio of one accident every 10,000 years, with some 400 nuclear reactors in operation around the world, the timespan for accidents would shrink considerably.
“If you look at the actual record – Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima – then even ignoring some near disasters in-between, you are coming to a disaster every 11 years,” he said.
“The figures that say the chances are terribly low don’t stack up.”
Energy Fair is also complaining that uranium is exempted from a UK electricity fuel tax, that new proposals would allow state money to plug cost over-runs for nuclear waste disposal, and that nuclear "feed-in-tariffs" form another de facto subsidy.
A decision by the European Commission could now take up to 18 months.
