Britain must invest in nuclear power - govt adviser
Date: 24-Apr-02
Country: UK
"If we don't reinvest in nuclear power, we'll increase our dependence on fossil fuels," David King, chief scientific adviser at the Office of Science and Technology at the Department of Trade and Industry told a conference on renewable energy.
He said Britain would fail to meet goals to cut the use of fossil fuels such as coal and oil which produce greenhouse gases when burned, if nuclear power and renewable energy was not increased. Some analysts doubt that renewables on their own will be able fill the gap.
"We need an informed debate on the need of having nuclear power running parallel with an increased use of renewable energy," he said.
While nuclear plants do not produce any greenhouse gases, environmentalists oppose building new nuclear power stations, mainly because of the poisonous waste they produce.
Britain generates 27 percent of its electricity from nuclear power but this will fall to about seven percent by 2020 if current reactors are not replaced when they come to the end of their working lives, said King.
Some of the older power stations have already been closed while the newest, British Energy's Sizewell B, was commissioned in 1995.
Britain's two nuclear power companies, British Energy and British Nuclear Fuels, agreed in February to study a new generation of reactors but said building new plants would be too expensive at current wholesale power prices.
A recent report to the government on Britain's energy needs left the door open for building replacement nuclear plants but said this was the responsibility of the private sector.
Britain aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, blamed by many scientists for causing global warming, by 23 percent from 1990 levels by 2010.
The UK government has set a target of generating 10 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by the end of the decade, up from just under three percent at present.