Government To Go Ahead With Nuclear Power Stations

The government has given the go ahead for a new generation of nuclear power stations.In announcement to the Commons yesterday, Energy secretary John Hutton said nuclear power stations had provided "safe and secure supplies of electricity for half a century" and that the government was publishing plans to encourage the private sector to build more.

Private companies will fund, develop and build the new nuclear power stations, including meeting the full costs of decommissioning and their full share of waste management costs.Hutton said the measures were vital because a third of the country’s generating capacity will come offline within the next 20 years, increasing reliance on imported energy.

Hutton's announcement coincided with the publication of the energy bill and a nuclear white paper.The White Paper sets out plans for a new independent advisory body called the Nuclear Liabilities Financing Assurance Board (NLFAB), to advise the Secretary of state on the financial arrangements for decommissioning and waste management.In addition, the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate will be strengthened to meet the increased workload.
The paper also outlines plans to use the provisions of the Planning Bill to ensure that nuclear development projects are treated like other critical infrastructure projects.

The Conservatives said that they broadly supported the announcement, which is supposed to help the government achieve the twin objectives of guaranteeing energy supplies and tackling climate change.

Commenting on the plans, the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, said: "The government must be honest about how much it will cost to build and run new nuclear power stations and who is going to pick up the bill. The government should abandon these expensive white elephants and focus on increasing energy efficiency and the use of genuinely renewable technologies."

The executive director of Greenpeace, John Sauven, said: "This is bad news for Britain's energy security and bad news for our efforts to beat climate change. Nuclear power can only deliver a 4% cut in emissions some time after 2025, and that's too little too late at too high a price. "

Around 18% of the UK's electricity is generated by nuclear power, but the last of the UK's existing nuclear plants is scheduled to close by 2035