New generation of nuclear build "hugely expensive": Lib Dems

London (Platts)--18Jan2006

The UK's third largest political party, the Liberal Democrats, are 
opposing the construction of a new generation of nuclear power plants, arguing
that it would be too expensive, would not address climate change and that the 
nuclear industry "cannot be trusted to deal with its own waste."

     Speaking at a debate on nuclear power in the Commons Tuesday, party 
environment spokesman Norman Baker said that "a new generation of nuclear 
power stations would be hugely expensive to build and would draw heavily on 
the public purse."

     "We have seen over the past 20 years that when money is put into nuclear,
there is none left for renewables and energy efficiency. They will wither on
the vine and the message that will go out to the renewables industry is,
'Nuclear is back big time--you can forget about your wind farms, your tidal
power and your solar power.' We cannot have them all together," he said.

     Baker dismissed talk that nuclear is a carbon free technology, saying
that nuclear power generation and the construction of nuclear power facilities
created a "considerable carbon footprint." 

     "Work done by a university in the Netherlands has suggested that the
carbon footprint of a nuclear facility is equivalent to between 20% and 40% of
that of a gas-fired power station over the lifetime of its existence, when one
takes account of the mining of uranium, transport and decommissioning," he
said.

     Concluding his speech Baker said that the energy mix that works is one
that minimizes energy consumption. Decentralized energy and encouragement of
householders to be part of the generation mix should be achieved, while the UK
should have a basket of renewable sources, not only wind. He also added that
the government should give consideration to carbon capture and storage and
acknowledge that there may be a role in future for fossil fuels if they can be
cleaned up.

     "I shall conclude by saying that nuclear is a dodo that does not fly. If
I wanted to extend the metaphor, I could say that it is a white elephant and a
red herring as well," he said.

     Energy minister Malcolm Wicks will lead a 2006 energy review which will
enable the government to give a yes or no answer to whether to build new
nuclear power plants in the UK. The review, expected to be completed by mid
2006, will also cover wider issues too, such as the UK's increasing reliance
on gas imports, the government has said.

     For more information, take a trial to Platts Nucleonics Week at
http://nucweek.platts.com.

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