UK may need new nuke power plants
Date: 08-Jul-04
Country: UK
"We may well need new nuclear power stations in the UK," Timms told a wind energy conference yesterday. "(But) I haven't met anyone who wants to invest in nuclear power in the UK," he said.
Poor economics and problems dealing with nuclear waste made the sector unattractive, he said.
Timms' comments came after Prime Minister Tony Blair on Tuesday said he would not close the door to another generation of nuclear power stations in the UK.
"It's not sensible for us to say...we are just shutting the door," Blair said. "You can't remove it from the agenda if you are serious about climate change."
Nuclear power plants do not produce carbon dioxide emissions unlike coal and gas-fired stations. Most of Britain's ageing nuclear power stations are due to close over the next 20 years.
The government, which wants to cut CO2 emissions by 60 percent by 2050, left the option of building new nuclear power stations open in an energy white paper last year.
The problems the nuclear industry faces were highlighted two years ago when British Energy, the country's largest nuclear generator, teetered on the edge of insolvency after a slump in wholesale power prices and had to be rescued in a government bail-out.
Environmentalists argue Britain should invest more in renewable energy to cut its carbon emissions but expansion of the green power sector has been slow and costly.
The UK has a target of providing 10 percent of its power from green sources by 2010, of which between seven and eight percent will come from wind power.
