‘Business as usual’ is not an option for the UK’s nuclear energy sector; our energy companies’ ‘regressive and unjust funding approach’ is causing fuel poverty, and the Northern Powerhouse could play a key role in shaping the UK’s climate change future.

These are just some of the opinions in a new publication, ‘On Energy: How can evidence inform future energy policy?’, by The University of Manchester. It is being launched on Wednesday 8th November at the House of Commons.

The report brings together some of the country’s leading energy, policy, and climate change scientists, academics and experts to offer their opinions and solutions for the UK’s most pressing energy issues.

The publication draws on expertise from across The University of Manchester and external collaborators, including Lord Jim O’Neill, Director of the Dalton Nuclear Institute, Professor Francis Livens, leading climate change researcher, Professor Alice Larkin and SUPERGEN Bioenergy Hub Director, Professor Patricia Thornley.

On the UK's nuclear policy, Professor Livens and his co-authors from DNI, Professors Tim Abram, Juan Matthews and Richard Taylor, say the industry needs to recognise that its competitors in the renewable sector, such as wind, solar and wave, are substantially cheaper. To combat this he says more innovation is needed to reduce the cost if it is to be taken seriously as an alternative to fossil fuels.

They say: ‘We can argue forever about the importance of baseload reliability, which nuclear gives you and renewables don’t, but does that reliability really justify nuclear being 50% more costly? Nuclear has to look at its costs.’

Estimates for decommissioning the ‘nuclear legacy’, an issue ‘dominated by Sellafield’, range from £120 billion to £220 billion.