The Sunday, October 9, 2005 edition of the Scotsman.com published an article by Fraser Nelson titled “Blair gives green light to new nuclear power plants”
Apparently, this decision has not yet been stated publicly, but the article reports that the Prime Minister of the UK has stated his position during several private meetings over the past few weeks. His decision is based on growing concern for meeting Kyoto targets, the coming retirement of existing nuclear stations, the potential for thousands of new jobs, a growing concern about energy imports from unstable regions as the North Sea oil and gas wells experience aging effects that are lowering production, and a recognition that solar and wind power will not be enough to meet demands.
The article also states that the nuclear industry has expressed the opinion that they have no need for subsidies, but that they will need some encouragement from the government in the form of rules that help prevent a devastating drop in energy prices. An unidentified source from the merchant banking industry that is working with the financing of new nuclear developments stated:
“We need certainty about energy prices, and that is very different from subsidy,” he said. “We need a thoroughly pro-nuclear White Paper, without any sense of an argument about it from the Treasury.”
