In addition, the government will hold a major deliberative exercise on September 8, 2007, involving a demographically representative sample of 1,100 UK citizens in nine cities across the region. A particular focus of the consultative events will be the role of nuclear power in the UK’s future energy mix.
The UK’s energy minister, Malcolm Wicks, said: Keeping the lights on for the decades ahead while also cutting carbon emissions is one of the biggest challenges of our time. The government’s energy white paper sets out a range of responses, including increased energy efficiency, carbon capture and storage and more renewable generation such as offshore wind farms.
The government also believes that new nuclear power stations should be an option for energy companies in the future, but we want to consult as widely as possible on this before making a decision, Mr Wicks added.
The consultation is running for 20 weeks in total, significantly longer than standard government consultations. The government has commissioned a range of specialist organizations to conduct and evaluate the consultation.
In total, it is expected that 1,500 people will be directly consulted at events throughout the summer. All responses to the consultation will be published. The government said that it will make a decision on the issue of new nuclear power later this year.
