17 April 2006John Vidal
A new generation of nuclear power stations will be unable to avert a serious energy crisis within 10 years, a committee of MPs said yesterday. In a scathing analysis of how Britain intends to generate power in future and of the way decisions are being made today, the environment audit committee urged the government to start investing heavily in alternative power sources to meet increasing demand and global warming objectives.
The committee's report said the government had become "too focused" on nuclear, and now risked the lights going out by not investing heavily in energy efficiency and more wind and gas stations. It called for a significant growth in renewables as well as political leadership.
The 16-member cross-party group with a majority of Labour MPs said that by 2016, 25% of Britain's electricity generating capacity will have to be replaced. Even if a new generation of nuclear reactors were agreed tomorrow, this would be too late to fill the "power gap" between supply and demand forecast for the UK by 2016. The proposed new nuclear network would not be generating at full capacity until as late as 2030 because nuclear power takes so long to plan and build.
The report is the second from a government committee in three months to reject nuclear power, and will be a major setback to the industry which is pressing hard to build 10 new stations. It will also disappoint Mr Blair, who is committed to nuclear on the recommendtion of the chief scientist, Sir David King, and other advisers.
The MPs said any decision to opt for nuclear must not be rushed. "There are also serious concerns relating to safety, the threat of terrorism, and the proliferation of nuclear power across the world. Moreover ... it is by no means clear whether investors will wish to commit themselves to 70 years of nuclear generation."
The committee noticed striking similarities to 1980 "when a similar large scale nuclear programme eventually resulted in the construction of only one new reactor - Sizewell B". But the MPs said opting for nuclear power could stymie the advance of renewable technologies like solar and tidal. The committee accused the Treasury of discouraging energy efficiency and said that it had no confidence in government modelling of Britain's future needs for power. It said renewable energy sources could provide 20% the UK's electricity by the year 2020 but the government did not appear to be committed to developing them. The Treasury was making it as difficult as possible for some technologies to be adopted.
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/green/story/0,,1755244,00.html
