The go-ahead for Britain’s first new nuclear power station in 20 years, Hinkley Point C, marks a major change of policy. This book traces the UK’s nuclear energy history, from the optimism of the 1950s, through the disillusionment of the 1980s to a new role for nuclear in the 21st century.

• How the dreams of cheap electricity and export success died.
• How privatizing the electricity industry revealed the wishful thinking of the nuclear sector.
• Why improved management gave the privatized nuclear stations a new lease of life.
• How the 2008 Climate Change Act unexpectedly encouraged ‘new nuclear’.
• Criticism of the industry:
  • “Why has it taken so long to get new reactors?” v. “If we wait a few years, a solar revolution will provide affordable, low-risk power”
  • Was this the right choice?
  • Concerns about the prices future consumers will have to pay.

Simon Taylor is a University Lecturer in Cambridge Judge Business School and economist. He teaches on financial markets and institutions, and has done research on financing nuclear power.