Website of the UK government

The government's response to its nuclear consultation, in the form of a White Paper, was published alongside the Energy Bill which sets out a range of measures to address the twin challenges of tackling climate change and securing energy supplies.

Energy Secretary, John Hutton, said:  "Giving the go ahead today that new nuclear power should play a role in providing the UK with clean, secure and affordable energy is in our country's vital long term interest.

 "With a third of our generating capacity coming offline within the next twenty years and increasing reliance on imported energy it is clear we need investment in a range of new energy infrastructure. Measures in the Energy Bill will drive a greater deployment of renewables and enable investment in carbon capture and storage and offshore gas infrastructure. These will help build our energy security, reduce emissions and place the UK at the forefront in the development of low carbon energy technology."

Nuclear power go-ahead

The government believes it is in the public interest that new nuclear power stations should have a role to play in this country's future energy mix alongside other low-carbon sources; that it would be in the public interest to allow energy companies the option of investing in new nuclear power stations; and that the government should take active steps to open up the way to the construction of new nuclear power stations. It will be for energy companies to fund, develop and build new nuclear power stations in the UK, including meeting the full costs of decommissioning and their full share of waste management costs. Nuclear power is:

• low-carbon - helping to minimise damaging climate change
• affordable - nuclear is currently one of the cheapest low-carbon electricity generation technologies, so could help us deliver our goals cost effectively
• dependable - a proven technology, currently supplying a fifth of our electricity supplies, with reactors capable of producing electricity reliably
• safe - backed up by a highly effective regulatory framework
• capable of increasing the diversity of our energy supplies and reducing our dependence on any one technology or country for our fuel supplies.
• 
  

Nuclear White Paper

To encourage nuclear investment the Government over the coming months will be taking forward the following steps:

• the Energy Bill contains clauses to ensure adequate funding provision is made by potential developers of new nuclear power stations for the full costs of decommissioning and their full share of waste management costs
• publish a consultation on waste and decommissioning financing provisions guidance
• starting to scope a new Nuclear Liabilities Financing Assurance Board (NLFAB). This body will provide advice on all aspects of the financial arrangements operators plan to put in place to cover waste management and decommissioning
• strengthening the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate
• make use of the provisions of the Planning Bill to ensure that nuclear development projects are treated like other critical infrastructure projects. The Planning Bill will make the new system fairer - but it will also be faster
• issue a call for Justification applications. This meets requirements of EU regulation that new nuclear processes should demonstrate that their benefits outweigh any possible health detriment
• publish a consultation on draft Strategic Siting Assessment criteria. This would be used to rule out those areas of the country in which there are no suitable sites and establish the framework for assessing the suitability of proposed sites. We expect that applications will focus on areas in the vicinity of existing nuclear facilities
• announce the start of the process for selecting reactor designs
• strengthen the EU Emissions Trading Scheme so that investors have confidence in a meaningful, long-term carbon price when making decisions. This will benefit all forms of low carbon generation.

The Energy Bill

The Energy Bill includes measures to ensure adequate funding provision is made by potential developers of new nuclear power stations, to drive greater and more rapid deployment of renewables, creates the framework for investment in carbon capture and storage, which has the potential to reduce the carbon emissions from fossil fuel power stations by up to 90%, and enables investment in new offshore gas infrastructure projects.

Further details

Details of the Future of Nuclear Power consultation together with responses are available on the consultation website.

The white paper is on the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform website.

• Nuclear power consultation 2007 Opens new window
• The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) Opens new window