Electricity Generation: Nuclear Power

Professor Gordon Mackerron, SPRU, University of Sussex

Nuclear investment within the UK is becoming credible again because: the political fall-out from Chernobyl has receded; price volatility for oil and gas has increased; there is international investment interest in nuclear; climate change has become a bigger driver; and nuclear offers a route to bulk baseload power. The 2007 EWP sees nuclear as both a low-carbon option and a way to improve security of supply, although there is considerable uncertainty over what the economics might be. The EWP sets out a range of facilitative actions to enable the development of new nuclear power (design, planning, back end costs, justification process), but these are yet to be tested.