UK leads nuclear investment

Government business secretary John Hutton has presented results of a study he commissioned which shows the UK is a global leader in new nuclear investment.

Speaking at a nuclear industry conference in London yesterday, Hutton said that the UK would attract the world's leading energy companies to build its next generation of nuclear power stations. He added that new capacity needs to be created as soon as possible to reduce carbon emissions and combat other energy threats.

Hutton said: ‘Nuclear has proved to be a dependable, affordable and safe source of low-carbon energy. And as such, it has - alongside renewables and carbon capture and storage, a critical role to play in our future energy mix.

‘To meet our energy goals, we must do everything we can to ensure new nuclear power stations are available as soon as possible. But, as more and more countries seek to insulate themselves against future energy price rises, soaring energy demand and the irrefutable reality of climate change, they're competing hard for the people, investment and technology to enable their own nuclear programmes.

‘The UK must aim to become the world's number one location for new nuclear investment - benefiting from the thousands of jobs and billions of pounds worth of business that this could potentially bring to our country.’

Hutton's announcements come as Defra publishes its new White Paper Managing Radioactive Waste Safely: A Framework for Implementing Geological Disposal, the next step in putting into place the long term solution to the UK's existing higher activity radioactive waste.