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By Dana Beltaji and Mary Katherine Wildeman

The Associated Press

BRIDGWATER, England 鈥� Wedged between the southwestern town of Bridgwater and the Severn Estuary is a 430-acre site where some of the U.K.’s future electricity hopes are pinned.

Now reaching over 100 feet high, the first of two nuclear reactors at the Hinkley Point C generating station is under construction, after years of planning.

Hinkley Point C, set to be one of the biggest power stations in Britain, will generate 7 percent of the country’s electricity. Around 8,000 workers, many of them currently living on-site, are shuttled between work and home at any hour of the day, seven days a week, on a bustling bus network.

鈥淗ere at Hinkley, everything’s on a grand scale,鈥� said project delivery director Nigel Cann as he gestured toward the giant site. 鈥淲e have the third-biggest bus service in the world. We serve more eggs and sausages and bacon than anywhere else in the U.K., I imagine.鈥�

Sites like Hinkley have become integral to the U.K. government’s strategy to become net zero by 2050. Some experts say nuclear energy will be needed to help nations wean off fossil fuels, but there are concerns about the substantial cost and time frame of building large nuclear reactors as well as worries over safety and nuclear waste. Wind farms, for instance, and other clean energy infrastructure can be built and come online much faster.

The outcome at Hinkley, energy analysts say, could help determine whether more large nuclear reactors like it are built in Britain and other countries in the future.

Nuclear power is generated through fission 鈥� the process of splitting uranium atoms. The energy released by fission turns water into steam to spin a turbine that generates electricity, a process that doesn’t emit planet-warming gases into the atmosphere. Scientists say that for the world to limit warming to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, fossil fuel emissions need to be cut dramatically, with the remainder being canceled out.

鈥淓veryone wants nuclear,鈥� said Neil Hirst, a senior policy fellow for energy at Imperial College London. 鈥淭hey want it because nuclear provides security at a time when gas supplies are at risk 鈥� and also because a lot of countries have got a net zero by 2050 commitment, which may be quite difficult or even impossible to reach without substantial nuclear.鈥�

But not everyone wants the costs and time commitments that come with it.

The Hinkley Point C project is estimated to cost up to 26 billion pounds ($30 billion) and is set to be completed in 2027. It’s already around 7 billion pounds ($8 billion) over budget and has suffered delays that owner EDF 鈥� a French state-owned energy company 鈥� says are largely tied to the COVID-19 pandemic causing supply chain issues and labor shortages.

The United States, which still leads all countries in capacity to generate nuclear power, has seen just one new nuclear reactor connected to the grid since 2000 鈥� a Tennessee-based project that required decades of construction. Meanwhile, plans for at least 21 new nuclear reactors have been cancelled since 2007, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. One American project is under construction in Georgia, though the budget has more than doubled,聽per Associated Press calculations.

France’s Flamanville 3, the same type of reactor as Hinkley Point C, is still under construction. It has exceeded the original budget by several times (it’s now expected to cost $12.7 billion) and experienced multiple setbacks. Finland’s Olkiluoto-3, which began generating electricity a decade behind schedule, saw its costs nearly quadruple to around $11 billion.

These massive overruns have 鈥渃ertainly given people a cause to be hesitant,鈥� said Jennifer Gordon, director of the Nuclear Energy Policy Initiative at the Atlantic Council. 鈥淏ut that said, in the last year the geopolitical calculus has changed so dramatically鈥� as climate and energy security concerns mount.

But Paul Dorfman, from Sussex University’s Science Policy Research Unit, said that 鈥渘uclear would be far too late to help us with our energy dilemma and unfortunately, really far too late to help us with our climate dilemma.鈥� He added that the huge uptick in renewables shows they can meet growing electricity demands.

Nuclear projects need billions of dollars up front before they start generating any electricity and have an ongoing fuel cost, something not true of wind or solar energy. They also don’t see a return for several years, so they rely on government backing in most instances, and to that end, public support.

This is more feasible in Europe, where governments are willing to dig into the public purse, Hirst said. In the U.S., it’s more difficult to get such big expenditures approved,聽even with recent incentives for nuclear power, meaning the country is likely to skip ahead to a聽newer advanced technology:聽small modular reactors, which cost less up front and can be constructed more quickly. This makes them an attractive prospect for many nations, Gordon said.

She added that large reactors could instead act 鈥渁s a bridge to the next generation of nuclear and also as a bridge to renewables and breakthroughs in storage鈥� technology.

Renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind or hydropower, doubled in capacity between 2000 and 2021 worldwide,聽according to an analysis of data from a global energy think tank. Nuclear power, meanwhile, grew by just 13 percent during that time, with more than half of that growth concentrated in China.

Renewables’ power is more variable, but a lot of solar and wind farms now use batteries to get closer to a 24-hour supply of electricity. Some experts believe nuclear can provide backup for other low-carbon energy sources in a future with no or very few fossil fuels, but there are concerns over whether it really has the modern flexibility needed to pair with sun and wind.

鈥淚t doesn’t provide what’s known as load flow to account for variability,鈥� Dorfman said. 鈥淚t’s much too inflexible to ramp up and down with the swings of demand.鈥�

Concerns over safety and nuclear waste also persist because of high-profile disasters like Chernobyl and Fukushima.

鈥淭he public perspective regarding the nuclear energy industry is one of our main challenges,鈥� nuclear risk analyst Jenifer Avellaneda said. 鈥淲e have had errors. But we do better, and we must do better.鈥�

The industry’s many regulatory bodies and strict procedures make it a safer bet than many other energy sources, especially high-polluting ones, Avellaneda said.

The share of nuclear energy for electricity generation worldwide has dropped to 9.8 percent 鈥� the lowest value in four decades, and 40 percent below the peak in 1996, according to a recent report on the state of the industry.

Britain alone has decommissioned three nuclear sites in recent years when their lifespans ended.

Hirst believes the future of large nuclear reactors, particularly in Europe, will hinge in part on whether Hinkley Point C is successful.

鈥淭hey’ve already had some cost overruns, but not on the scale of development,鈥� he said, adding that if the project remains on its updated schedule and is 鈥渞easonably in touch with original costs, then I think we will see more orders.鈥�

The team in Bridgwater understands what’s at stake.

鈥淲e understand our responsibility to get this plant generating as quickly as possible,鈥� Cann said. 鈥淲e feel that pressure, we feel the responsibility, but we will never compromise safety or quality.鈥�

Editor’s note: Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report. Wildeman reported from Hartford, Connecticut.