White Paper on Nuclear Power
The UK Government has published its White Paper on Nuclear Power: Meeting the Energy Challenge - A White Paper on Nuclear Power January 2008. It has decided that nuclear power should form part of the UK energy generation mix. The White Paper follows a consultation exercise, and concluded:
Following the consultation we have concluded that, in summary, nuclear power is:
• Low-carbon – helping to minimise damaging climate change
• Affordable – nuclear is currently one of the cheapest low-carbon electricity generation technologies, so could help us deliver our goals cost effectively
• Dependable – a proven technology with modern reactors capable of producing electricity reliably
• Safe – backed up by a highly effective regulatory framework
• Capable of increasing diversity and reducing our dependence on any one technology or country for our energy or fuel supplies
Safety
Safety was plainly a real issue for many consultees, but nuclear power emerged with a reasonably clean bill of health:
38. The consultation process and the deliberative events showed public concern about safety and security. There are risks, but we consider these are very low and that our regulatory arrangements address those risks. We accept that safety and security in relation to nuclear materials must be paramount and that our regulatory arrangements must ensure that this remains the case in all circumstances. Having reviewed the arguments and evidence put forward in the consultation and responses to it, the Government is satisfied that new nuclear reactors can be managed as effectively as existing nuclear power stations. Indeed, the evidence is that new nuclear reactors are designed to be safer than those currently operating. Our regulatory arrangements are effective.
The approach to the ethical issue of long term waste will surprise some. Instead of proposing nuclear power as a necessary evil, the government puts the positive case that we owe it to future generations to go nuclear in order to avoid the damage done to the environment by fossil fuel power stations:
2.163 The Government agrees that the creation of new waste raises ethical issues. The consultation provided an opportunity for respondents to raise and provide their considered views on these issues. The Government has considered the comments that nuclear waste would be an unacceptable legacy for us to leave to future generations. We have also noted the arguments put forward that nuclear power may provide significant benefits to future generations, particularly in terms of reducing CO2 emissions, as well as improving security of energy supply, which will help to ensure that future generations have access to the same or a better standard of living to the one that we currently enjoy.
2.164 The Government believes that the intergenerational issues of radioactive waste should not be considered in isolation, but alongside the long-term impact of climate change. If no new nuclear power stations are built there would be no additional radioactive waste. However, there could be negative consequences for the environment, due to increased CO2 emissions if some fossil fuel power stations, without CCS technology, are built to meet energy demand instead of nuclear. The economic modelling set out in the consultation document181 suggests that without the option of nuclear power, this would be a likely scenario in the medium term (up to 2030), because coal and gas fired power stations remain more economic compared to renewables, and CCS is a new technology which is not currently operating on a commercial scale.
Other renewables
The White Paper considers the role of renewables and other low carbon generation options. Carbon capture get a cautious welcome:
A22 However, large-scale CCS represents a significant technological challenge. No commercial scale power station using CCS technology has yet been developed anywhere in the world, although all the elements of the individual stages of the process have been demonstrated. Given the huge potential of CCS to abate carbon emissions in the UK and abroad, a number of governments, including the UK, are in the process of supporting commercial demonstrators of the technology on power generation.
The White Paper tiptoes around the issue of the value of other renewables, and is careful not to rule out the development of solar, wind or tide options. But it is inherent throughout the paper that these technologies cannot sensibly be relied on as a complete answer:
• The overall challenges of delivering secure electricity supplies while making the transition to a low-carbon economy will be magnified over the long-term in the absence of a dependable low-carbon technology such as nuclear power
Private Money
The UK Government is not proposing to build nuclear power plants itself, but instead to take several steps to facilitate the building of nuclear power plants by private industry, including in particular a streamlining of the planning process. The envisaged timetable sees the construction process starting in 2013, with this new wave of power coming on stream in 2018.
Implications for Australia
What implications does this move have for Australia? It will probably lead to demand for Australian uranium, and may strengthen the hand of those who argue that, having signed up to Kyoto, Australia should embrace nuclear power generation as the only currently proven route to the carbon reduction targets.