Fury as government plans 40-year nuclear subsidies

The 2010 coalition agreement promised that there would be no public cash for new nuclear power stations but reports today indicated that ministers were proposing to guarantee firms subsidies for up to 40 years.

It is believed the U-turn is a response to a number of firms, most recently Centrica, pulling out of planned projects.

According to the Guardian ministers are planning to extend contracts from the previously proposed 20 years to 30 or 40 years in a bid to keep the guaranteed wholesale cost per unit of energy to below £100 per megawatt hour.

The paper quoted industry sources as saying that the likely price per unit from the first planned project - the building of two 1.6 gigawatt reactors at Hinckley Point by EDF - would be just under £100 per MWH, more than double the market price for electricity.

Labour MP for Newport Paul Flynn said on Twitter: "(Energy Secretary) Ed Davey says there will be nuclear subsidies - enormous ones. But it's a secret until it is too late to change."

Britain was "being secretly seduced into a hideous nuclear black hole that could rob us for 50 years," he added.

Friends of the Earth's energy campaigner Guy Shrubsole said: "This latest government U-turn is a double blow for the climate and the economy.

"New nuclear could end up costing consumers tens of billions of pounds and will saddle future generations with hazardous waste."