Government set to give green light for nuclear plants

By Rich Bowden, M&C Staff Writer Jan 10, 2008, 8:09 GMT

Nuclear energy opponents roll symbollic atomic waste bins during a protest march in Salzgitter, Germany, 13 October 2007. EPA/PETER STEFFAN

(M&C) - The government is set to give the go-ahead for a new generation of nuclear plants to provide for the country's future energy needs.

Business Secretary John Hutton will shortly address MPs to say Cabinet has backed the nuclear energy proposal.

However the government will face stiff opposition from environmental groups such as Greenpeace who have not ruled out taking legal action against the government over the issue. The group won a case before the High Court last year when they complained the government's consultation process was flawed.

Executive director John Sauven dismissed the notion that nuclear power would greatly decrease the country's carbon emissions saying to the Press Association:

"There is a lie at the heart of the Government's coming announcement on nuclear power. Ministers' own research found that even 10 new reactors would only cut the UK's carbon emissions by about 4% some time after 2025, and the so-called energy gap will open before new nuclear power stations can be built," he said.

"Going for nuclear allows politicians like Gordon Brown to project the impression that they are taking difficult decisions to solve difficult problems when they are doing nothing of the sort."

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg called on the government to be "honest" in its costings of nuclear power.

"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. Even if energy companies could run them without taxpayers' money, consumers would just end up paying for them through higher fuel bills," he said.

Existing nuclear power stations in the UK produce about 20 percent of the country's energy needs however they are due to be decommissioned in 2023.