On 10 January, the Government unveiled its new energy policy, the centrepiece of which was support for new nuclear power stations.
The Government says it won't subsidise nuclear plants, but many doubt the numbers stack up for private firms, says Ruth Sunderland in The Observer. Nuclear power stations have huge up-front costs coupled with uncertain revenues, as they are vulnerable to fluctuations in power prices.
John Hutton, the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform's claim that there will be no subsidies, is an "empty promise", says The Independent. Even if public money is not used to set up the plants, it will be needed to dispose of the waste. And then there are the safety concerns and fears that the plants could become terrorist targets.
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We have little option but to press on, says Michael Hanlon in the Daily Mail. Britain faces the twin challenge of meeting our energy needs and cutting carbon emissions. Nuclear power, along with 'clean coal' technology, "must play a part". The worry is, we may be too late. Existing nuclear plants, which supply us with 20% of our electricity, are closing. By the time the new generation is ready by 2023, only Sizewell B will remain. Many of our coal-fired plants are wearing out, and as for renewables, it is hard to see their role as anything more than marginal. By the 2020s, the energy gap could be difficult to bridge.
The danger is that by failing to provide adequate incentives for a nuclear renaissance we get the worst of both worlds, "where nuclear investment stalls under a risky investment climate while markets hold back from other investment in the expectation that nuclear is just around the corner", says Gordon MacKerron in The Independent on Sunday.
The "grotesque mishandling" of our national energy policy is one of the most "catastrophic failures" of successive modern governments, says Christopher Booker in The Sunday Telegraph. It has been clear for years that as North Sea gas ran out and the bulk of our coal and nuclear plants reached the ends of their lives, we would face a "grave energy crisis", but because nuclear power had become such a "hot potato" politicians shut their eyes.
Now, with a dearth of nuclear engineers, we shall be forced to wait for the crumbs to fall from those nations who stayed in the game, "trying to stop our lights going out by buying nuclear-generated electricity from across the Channel."
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