No wonder the government planned to use - until common sense prevailed - the words "productivity" and "energy" to rename the Department of Trade and Industry. For it now appears that, after two energy reviews in its last term, the government is to conduct yet another one by the end of this year. The reason is a dawning realisation that, for all the government's faith-based promotion of renewable energy to combat climate change, the country cannot increase windpower and the like fast enough to fill the gap in carbon-free energy that would be left if it abandoned nuclear power.

As Alan Johnson, the trade and industry secretary, told the Financial Times on Saturday, the review will set out "where we stand". On nuclear and renewable energy, this is simple and stark. Britain generates less than 3 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources. This is growing, but almost certainly not fast enough to hit the government target for renewables to account for 10 per cent of power by 2010. The even bigger question mark, however, hangs over the nuclear reactors that today generate 20 per cent of the country's power. The oldest of these are due to leave service next year, and only one reactor - Sizewell B - has a working life beyond 2020. So it is not a matter of increasing Britain's reliance on the atom - at least not in the two decades to come - but merely trying to maintain its share.