"Nuclear energy is green energy, essential in the race to tackle climate change," said Mike Clancy, Prospect Assistant General Secretary. "New nuclear build is an essential part of a balanced energy policy that must embrace a wide range of low carbon options.
"It is crucial for the UK to meet the urgent priorities of climate change and security of energy supply. New build will yield major economic benefits by creating many thousands of new jobs – not only for those involved in operation, but also within the manufacturing and construction supply chain."
Clancy stressed the importance of the decision to future generations as failure to renew the UK’s existing nuclear fleet will lead to a sharp increase in carbon emissions from 2015. "Although construction of any power station is not carbon free, nuclear generation is almost entirely free from carbon emissions. Those who refuse to acknowledge that fact are burying their heads in the sand. Renewables such as clean coal and wind power have a crucial place, as the government has recognised. But on their own they cannot meet the UK’s future needs."
Prospect says urgent steps now need to be taken to:
- raise staffing levels within the Health and Safety Executive’s nuclear inspectorate to deal with pre-licensing and pre-design issues
- accelerate measures to tackle skills shortages, including specialist roles such as health physicists, safety case engineering specialists and radiochemists
- create an energy agency, accountable to parliament, as an enabling platform for private investment. It would take the politics out of planning by taking a long-term view and balancing the public interest with market solutions
- speed up the choice of location for a geological repository to store existing and new waste. Because of efficiency gains, a new nuclear programme of comparable size to the existing nuclear fleet would increase the quantity of nuclear waste by 7%.