The UK government is going to deliver plans for fast-tracking a new generation of nuclear power stations, guardian.co.uk reported. The government will identify more locations around Britain that might be suitable for constructing a nuclear plant. Ed Miliband, UK's Energy and Climate Change secretary, will announce a number of national policy statements including a list of sites judged suitable for nuclear developments.
Miliband will emphasize on what the government considers to be the importance of a diverse energy supply.
The detailed information will be available in the nuclear policy statement, which comprises a forensic assessment of the 11 sites which are already nominated by energy companies as well as identifying alternatives.
The statements of policy also include setting out need for new energy infrastructure including renewables, fossil fuels and gas, and also an overarching energy statement that will include climate change policy.
The policy statements will be open for consultation until 2010 and will act as guidelines for the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC). The aim is to speed up planning decisions and give solutions to developers within one year.
The IPC will be away from the government in an attempt to remove politics from the planning decision.
The policy statements are expected to be a drawing together of already stated policy.
A common select committee has been formed to scrutinize the policy statements.
Green groups are disappointed at the prospect of new nuclear power and have warned that the government could be open to legal challenge if the policy statements do not properly consider climate change. They also raised concerns that people will not be able to influence decisions on major projects because schemes covered by the statements will not be subject to public inquiry.
But the government insists that the companies will have to work closely with local regions and show they have consulted widely in order to gain approval.
Robin Oakley, head of the group’s climate and energy campaign, said: “Nuclear is a dangerous and expensive irrelevance to tackling climate change and providing real energy security.
“We don’t need coal or nuclear, because proven green technologies such as wind and combined heat and power stations can secure Britain’s energy needs, create green jobs and slash our emissions.”
Andy Atkins, the executive director of Friends of the Earth, said the battle against climate change should be at the “core” of all government decisions in order to meet commitments on reducing emissions.
He added: “Building new nuclear reactors is not the answer to the challenges of climate change and energy security. Nuclear power leaves a deadly legacy of radioactive waste that remains highly dangerous for tens of thousands of years and costs tens of billions of pounds to manage. And building new plants would divert precious resources from developing safe renewable power, while doing little to bring about the urgent emissions reductions that are desperately needed within the next decade.”