Politicians are famous for announcing grand policy initiatives that have not been properly thought through and that then prove unworkable in practice. The UK government’s new nuclear power programme might be seen as one such ill thought out venture. It wants to build 10 new nuclear plants, replacing existing ones that are due to close, and proposes that the financing should be fulfilled entirely by the private sector. The first plant is planned to become operational by 2017 and the government hopes that the scheme will increase nuclear energy supply from the current 19% of national consumption.
The development of nuclear energy projects is famously lengthy and very expensive and so far there are few, if any, examples of it being done entirely by the private sector. To follow this through, the UK government should also decide what to do with its 39% stake in British Energy, one of the possible developers of the new nuclear programme.
