Nuclear back on UK energy policy agenda

Supply threats, rising prices and global warming is putting energy policy around the world “back on the agenda with a vengeance,” said Tony Blair who will announce next year whether the UK should re-invest in nuclear.

“The issue back on the agenda with a vengeance is energy policy,” UK Prime Minister Tony Blair told the Confederation of British Industry on 29 November. “Round the world you can sense feverish re-thinking. Energy prices have risen. Energy supply is under threat. Climate change is producing a sense of urgency,” he said. 

Against this background, Tony Blair said the review of the UK’s long term energy policy calls for “a serious debate” on Britain’s future energy mix. He indicated that existing coal and nuclear power plants that today generate over 30% of Britain’s electricity supply will need to be decommissioned by 2020. “Some of this will be replaced by renewables but not all of it can,” Mr Blair pointed out.

A new energy policy statement, due “in the early summer of 2006”, “will include specifically the issue of whether we facilitate the development of a new generation of nuclear power stations,” said Blair.

Nuclear power is also being reconsidered elsewhere in Europe. In 2002, Finland took a decision to build the first new reactor on the continent for more than a decade. It is due for completion in 2009. 

Environmentalists fear this will inspire other countries to follow suit. “You can just see the Italian, German, Spanish industries suddenly waking up and saying: ‘let’s go nuclear too,'” Roger Higman at Friends of the Earth told Reuters.

At EU level, the nuclear package of 2002  deals mainly with safety standards and waste issues. It still needs to be formally approved by member states and the European Parliament.

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