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UK’s Conservative Party’s confused nuclear energy policy

Both Labour and the Tories claim that they will not provide any public subsidy, but both know that this cannot be true when the nuclear industry that has never been able to survive without it.

(UK) THE TORIES ARE FICKLE AND NUCLEAR IS TOO BIG TO FAIL SAYS SIMON HUGHES, Steve Beasant, Liberal Democrat Councillor for East Marsh Ward, 23 March 2010, Launching the Tories’ energy policy in July 2006, David Cameron, gave a convincing and well-reasoned argument explaining why nuclear power must be a “last resort”. Later that year he described Labour’s enthusiasm for nuclear power as “irresponsible”. As Cameron rightly pointed out: “The problems of nuclear waste haven’t been dealt with. They have got to be dealt with in order to make any new investment possible.” Four years on, we’re no closer to finding out how to deal with highly toxic nuclear waste and the Tory leader’s point stands as strong as ever. But unfortunately, the Tories no longer seem to care.

Indeed, the Tories’ new green paper on energy security shows remarkable dexterity in rewriting history, now criticising the Labour government for dragging its feet before finally coming round to support new nuclear. This political journey neatly epitomises the Conservative’s new energy policy: confused, incoherent and lacking in credibility.

Nuclear power has always required huge amounts of public money and David Cameron’s signal that the Tories are ready to turn on the taps of taxpayer support risks billions which we simply can’t afford. Both Labour and the Tories claim that they will not provide any public subsidy, but both know that this cannot be true when the nuclear industry that has never been able to survive without it.

Like the banks, new nuclear is too big to fail. And like the banks, new nuclear depends on a more or less explicit taxpayer guarantee. Once a nuclear power station is running we will have it for the next 40 years, come what may. No responsible government could ever let a nuclear power generator go bankrupt. This has happened before, when the taxpayer had to bail out British Energy £10bn and accept £73bn of their liabilities. As my colleague Vince Cable has said, nuclear power is the Royal Bank of Scotland of the energy industry.

Steve Beasant | THE TORIES ARE FICKLE AND NUCLEAR IS TOO BIG TO FAIL SAYS SIMON HUGHES

March 23, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, UK | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear weapons