Fingleton stressed that the U.K. should not impose more stringent interpretations of these regulations than rival nuclear markets in the EU. This follows supplier EDF paying out up to £700 million to protect marine life at Hinkley Point C — including an infamous “fish disco.”
“We don’t always have a trade-off between the environment and building things, but we often create an artificial one by making it very site-specific,” Fingleton warned.
He argued that with a reformed nuclear framework developers could have instead spent “a fraction of that on other measures to improve fish in the river,” this would “have a better environmental outcome and less delay … and lower costs for nuclear.”
Message to Burnham
Fingleton also said that ministers should not rush to implement all the recommendations of his 2025 review, saying Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s new crop of ministers have time to make future legislation as effective as possible — and should use it.
“I think it’s really important to get the legislation right rather than to rush it,” Fingleton said. “So probably, if I was asked: ‘Should you take an extra few months to get this right rather than rush it through?’ I would ease the time limit in order to get the right answer — because it’s important rather than urgent.”
Former Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s response to Fingleton’s report committed to “implementing everything [in the recommendations] by the end of 2027, subject to legislative timelines.” Governments have historically been “too cautious and too slow” on nuclear reform, Starmer wrote back in March.
“We are taking forward the recommendations of the Nuclear Regulatory Review and have published our implementation plan, with all reforms expected to be completed by the end of 2027,” a DESNZ spokesperson said.
