New nukes
John Vidal has nine nuclear questions. I have followed the nuclear debate since I was 13. My school chums were nearly all the children of the first nuclear scientists at what is now Sellafield and I learned at first hand from their dads how the technology would provide Britain and the world with limitless elecricity “too cheap to meter”. I really believed them.
Guardian 17th May 2006
Walt Patterson: Nuclear power is a proven failure. Instead, the government must radically overhaul the way buildings are constructed and run. When you see disaster looming, you don’t fiddle around. You change course fast. Climate change and “supply security” are energy disasters in the making. But governments are still rearranging deckchairs. The UK has never built a nuclear power station on schedule or within budget, or one that worked according to its original specifications. In 1989, when Margaret Thatcher’s government proposed to sell the electricity system to
private investors, the City of London refused to play, fearing the appalling nuclear track record and open-ended liabilities.
Guardian 17th May 2006
Gordon Brown is to throw his weight behind Tony Blair’s controversial plans to build a new generation of nuclear power stations in a setback to opponents of the move. The Chancellor believes that giving nuclear power a new lease of life is part of the solution to Britain’s energy problems. But he admits privately that the public, parliament and environmental
groups will need to be convinced about the cost and benefits of the nuclear option. Allies of Mr Brown said yesterday there was “no real difference” between him and the Prime Minister on the issue, and that he is personally convinced a new nuclear programme is the right way forward.
Independent 18th May 2006
Scottish Herald 18th May 2006
Cabinet split over cost of nuclear energy: Tony Blair was last night facing cabinet-level opposition over his plans
for a new generation of nuclear power stations following Treasury predictions of “eye-wateringly large” costs.
Ministers are seeking assurances that they will be given detailed figures on the costs of nuclear power, and not bland assurances from the Department of Trade and Industry before the energy review is published next month.
Cabinet sources say the political achilles heel of the nuclear industry is uncertainty over its costs, rather than safety. The cabinet sources complain that there is a lack of certainty as to what the DTI means when it insists that there will be no taxpayers’ subsidy to encourage the private sector to build the new stations. The sources believe the government will be forced to make guarantees, soft loans, or rig the market in a way that crowds out the case for renewables.
Guardian 18th May 2006
When Tony Blair presents the nation with a stark choice about the future it is always worth pausing for thought. One of the prime minister’s worst habits is his sudden discovery of urgent dangers which require absolute answers and forceful leadership. The loser is usually debate and complexity, brushed aside by perilous contrasts between the extremes of the argument. Thought and caution are painted as cowardice, an avoidance of decisions that have to be taken. Mr Blair did it again on Tuesday when he threw out his sudden challenge on nuclear energy in a speech to the CBI. Though his language avoided giving a firm commitment to a new generation of British nuclear power stations, the tone of his argument and his remarks at last week’s prime ministerial press conference left little room for doubt about what he has decided.
Guardian Leader 18th May 2006
Environmental campaigners called on Tony Blair yesterday to publish a briefing he used to justify hints that he would approve a new generation of nuclear power stations.
Guardian 18th May 2006
Daily Mail 18th May 2006
Tom Burke says The prime minister has a taste for pre-emptive strikes and dodgy dossiers. He pre-empted his own white paper on energy policy with the energy review. He has now pre-empted the review by declaring that Britain needs new nuclear power stations. In so doing he has confirmed the suspicion that the review will be economical with the facts. This precipitate action has accomplished the intended headlines. Whether it has made new nuclear power stations likely is more questionable. The prime minister’s views on nuclear are well known. His surrogates have been busy making them clear in the media and on the conference circuits for months. His problem has been to persuade a doubtful public and sceptical investors to share his view.
Guardian 18th May 2006
The nuclear energy industry needs to work harder if it is to persuade the public of the benefits of building new plants, Europe’s top energy official believes. Andris Piebalgs, EU energy commissioner, said the sector should do more to address concerns about costs, safety and waste treatment. Mr Piebalgs said: “I believe the nuclear industry should be more active in this situation. The industry should provide some answers.”
FT 18th May 2006
Letters to The Times: Energy is bigger than nuclear versus the rest. Philip Wolfe of the Renewable Energy Association says Last month 35 organisations, including the Renewable Energy Association, with support from all major political paties, presented a manifesto of sustainable energy principles to the Government’s energy review. Mr Blair’s
comments suggest that this review is simply a smokescreen to conceal the ditching of the farsighted vision of the Energy White Paper the Government published just three years ago. David Lowry says It is misleading to describe nuclear power as a carbon-neutral energy source
The Times 18th May 2006
Times Leader: part of the case for nuclear power is international politics; The most telling factor, however, was a quarrel last December that broke out hundreds of miles away. Russia’s demand for a threefold increase in payments for gas by Ukraine was refused. The Russians promptly shut off supplies. As a result, much of Western Europe suffered a sudden drop in pressure at the height of a cold snap. Nothing could have illustrated more dramatically the Kremlin’s determination to use its huge energy reserves for political purposes or Europe’s growing dependency on a single supplier.
The Times 18th May 2006
THE Assembly Government is facing an uphill battle to ensure a nuclear-free future for Wales, after Prime Minister Tony Blair kept up his backing for a new generation of nuclear power stations.
Western Mail 18th May 2006
FT Leader: Tony Blair said in public this week what he had already made clear in private: that he believes Britain needs to start replacing its ageing nuclear reactors in order to combat climate change and avoid increasing dependence on gas imports from unstable parts of the world. But for the prime minister to have made up his mind is far from meaning it will happen. Any new generation of reactors would be the first in Britain to be built by the private sector, and companies and banks will first want to see Mr Blair’s decision win public acceptance before sinking their money into what has been something of an investment black hole in the past.
FT 18th May 2006
Herald Leader: Yesterday, the French company, Areva, estimated that it could have new British nuclear reactors up and running by 2017, provided the planning process is streamlined. They are probably being optimistic but, either way, all of a sudden, the timeframe for making this crucial decision looks tight. Nobody is pretending that nuclear power can be the only ingredient in Britain’s energy cake, but can we afford to rule it out of the mix? While open to persuasion, we remain to be convinced.
Scottish Herald 18th May 2006
If Britain is to build more nuclear power stations it will have to look abroad for expertise because it no longer has the skills to build reactors.
Telegraph 18th May 2006
Tony Blair received a foretaste yesterday of the political backlash he can expect from his decision to endorse the building of a new generation of nuclear power stations. Elliot Morley, who was sacked as environment minister two weeks ago, said building new nuclear reactors would cost the taxpayer “very large sums of money”. In the Commons, Scottish Nationalist MPs accused Mr Blair of threatening to leave a legacy of nuclear “dumps” in Scotland.
Telegraph 18th May 2006
Charles Clover asks: So what’s new? The analysis doesn’t appear to have changed since the 2002 energy white paper: by 2025, we will be able to keep the lights on only by importing gas from dodgy dictatorships and we’ll be struggling (then as now) to cut our greenhouse gas emissions. So Tony Blair saying that a new generation of nuclear power stations is “back on the agenda with a vengeance” – before the results of the energy review he commissioned last year have been published – is rightly being met by a wall of disbelieving silence. Whatever you think about nuclear power – and personally I want to do something about climate change and keep the lights on, in whichever way it has to be done – it is difficult to avoid the growing suspicion that we are both being distracted from the Government’s difficulties and sold a half-baked strategy that will not solve the problems it is meant to.
Telegraph 18th May 2006
LABOUR’S manifesto for next year’s Holyrood elections will pave the way for a new generation of nuclear power stations in Scotland, The Scotsman has learned.
Labour leaders have decided the party will contest the 2007 Scottish Parliament election under a policy of “keeping options open” for the construction of new nuclear stations north of the Border.
Scotsman 18th May 2006
Nuclear’s comeback has unknowns far beyond what to do with the waste. SO NOW it’s official. Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, says nuclear power is “back on the agenda with a vengeance” – a comment that can safely be taken as confirmation of what had become the government’s worst kept secret: new nuclear power stations are on the way.
Scotsman 18th May 2006
Telegraph letters: nuclear power is perilous, but river power is safe. Includes one letter about the proximity of Lydd Airport to Dungeness.
Telegraph 18th May 2006
The public may have the impression that any “new nuclear power” decision in the energy review – especially after Tony Blair’s support for nuclear this week – is a simple yes or no. But any decision by the government in favour must say how. A simple yes will not persuade the private sector to finance and build a nuclear power programme.
FT 18th May 2006
Iran
Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad on Wednesday rejected a prospective European offer of incentives to halt uranium enrichment, the most sensitive part of Tehran’s nuclear programme.
FT 18th May 2006
Scotsman 18th May 2006
