Ed Davey Re-Affirms Government Policy for New Civil Nuclear Power

Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Davey, has re-iterated strong support for new nuclear power in the UK during a speech to the House of Commons on 7 February 2013.

On plans for building a number of new reactors Mr Davey said that the government wanted to make the UK a “leading destination for investment in new nuclear” and that industry had laid out plans for 16GW of new capacity equivalent to £60 Billion of new investment. He also suggested that Centrica’s recent withdrawl from the EDF Energy consortium to develop new nuclear at Hinkley C was not a reflection on Government policy but rather reflected Centrica’s investment priorities.

Mr Davey said that he believes that geological storage is the right way forward for the long term storage of higher activity radioactive waste, despite the recent decision by Cumbria County Council against participating in the next phase to identify potential sites for geological disposal.

He went on to discuss the issue of subsidy for new nuclear power saying new nuclear will receive no levy, direct payment or market support for electricity supplied or capacity provided. However, he did add the caveat “unless similar support is also made available more widely to other types of generation.”

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