Nuclear has a place in Europe's energy mix, but rising costs - even if only perceived - need to be addressed to ensure future growth, speakers agreed at the New Nuclear Watch Institute's first annual forum, held in London yesterday.

Advancing energy policies to achieve climate change goals includes a range of instruments to mitigate the economic risks associated with nuclear power projects, Marilyn Kray, president of the American Nuclear Society, said yesterday at the IAEA's International Conference on Climate Change and the Role of Nuclear Power in Vienna. In her role at ANS, Kray represents the roughly 10,000 people working in the US nuclear sector. She is also vice president of strategy and development for Exelon Generation, the biggest operator of nuclear power plants in the USA.

Foratom has welcomed the European Council's decision to remain technology neutral in its strategy on financing sustainable growth and the transition to a low-carbon, resource-efficient economy, but it urges the European Commission to establish a group with expertise in nuclear life-cycle technologies to advise on its EU-wide classification system, or 'taxonomy', the implementation of which has been postponed by two years.

The European Commission must acknowledge the "critical role" that nuclear energy has to play under its sustainable finance initiative, European nuclear trade body Foratom said yesterday. The Commission, it said, should reconsider its decision to exclude nuclear from economic activities covered by the initiative.

The UK has opened for consultation its assessment of a new financing model aimed at reducing the cost of new nuclear power plant projects by having consumers pay upfront through their energy bills. A solution is needed urgently because nuclear energy is seen as a vital part of the government's commitment to cutting the country's carbon emissions to net zero by 2050. Seven of the UK's eight existing nuclear plants are set to be retired by 2030.

Greg Clark, the UK's secretary of state for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, today spoke “candidly” about the unprecedented financial terms offered to Hitachi ahead of the company’s decision to suspend its new nuclear power plant project.

Financial challenges facing nuclear energy need to be tackled by disrupting the status quo to help drive down costs, delegates heard at the recent World Nuclear Association 2018 Symposium in London.

NuGeneration and Horizon Nuclear Power expect the strike price they agree with the UK government for their respective new build projects will be lower than the one agreed for EDF Energy's Hinkley Point C plant.