UK to consider more reliance on nuclear power

Britain is to consider investing in a new generation of nuclear power plants in order to meet its greenhouse gas emission targets.

Alan Johnson, the newly appointed trade and industry secretary, said a decision could be made later this year after a review of energy policy.

The Labour government has hitherto resisted replacing Britain's ageing nuclear power stations, which meet a fifth of the nation's energy needs.

Labour refused to be drawn on the contentious issue of new nuclear plants before last week's election. But days after winning a third term in office, Tony Blair, the prime minister, admitted a decision would need to be made during the term.

Mr Johnson said the government would "have to make a decision in plenty of time" to replace its nuclear power stations. All but one of them is due to be decommissioned by 2023.

The energy market had "moved significantly" since a policy paper in 2003 which left the door open to new nuclear power, Mr Johnson said. This paper said priority should be given to developing renewable forms of energy, such as wind and wave power, to meet ambitious targets for cutting carbon dioxide emissions. Ministers conceded earlier this year these targets would be missed unless there was a change of policy.

Mr Johnson said the government could decide that the loss of the 20 per cent of electricity provided by nuclear's clean fuel could not be be made up by renewables.

The Department of Trade and Industry would launch the discussion by issuing "some kind of review of where we stand, some time this year", Mr Johnson said.

The new trade and industry secretary did not commit himself to backing new nuclear plants. But his comments are much more supportive of this option than the stance adopted by Patricia Hewitt, his predecessor in the job. Any decision to approve new stations would still trigger a cabinet disagreement, with opponents including Margaret Beckett, the environment secretary, who controls a review of climate change policies due to report later this year.

Mr Blair has signalled he may be running out of patience with anti-nuclear advocates of renewable energy as the principal answer to climate change. He has pledged to make global warming a priority of Britain's G8 presidency later this year and wants the UK back on track to meet its domestic climate change targets.

Mr Blair said this week: "You will never get a new generation of nuclear power stations until you've dealt with. cost and public acceptability." These two potential stumbling blocks "lie very much around this issue of waste and how you tackle it".