Setting the context, meeting chair Sue Ferns pointed out that the UK's carbon emissions increased by 3.5 per cent last year. The UK's carbon footprint had grown by 10 per cent since 1993, and recently Ofgem had predicted power blackouts by 2015 due to under-investment in low carbon energy.

Prospect general secretary Mike Clancy said the government had made some progress on energy market reform, but "we haven't quite got there."

The energy market needed interventions from government to create a sustainable energy mix that included the production of base-load electricity, which did not rely on the wind blowing. "Policy stability is absolutely crucial for the energy sector," Clancy stressed, otherwise companies would not want to invest.

Though the energy industry was in private hands, the people working within it still had a strong sense of public service, a commitment to ensuring the lights stay on, and ensuring things were done safely.

Safety had moved forward a long way and independent union backing for civil nuclear energy should give confidence to communities.

Kevin Coyne, Unite national officer for energy and utilities, highlighted the important role of unions in campaigning for new nuclear build. Though Unite and Prospect had been called scaremongers over the last decade for raising concerns about the shortfall in energy supply, "it remains a constant threat."

Coal-fired power stations were rapidly running down, with wind power unable to bridge the gap and gas prices spiralling out of control.

The government seemed set on fracking as a solution, but alongside negative public perceptions, fracking had high carbon emission levels, though 40 per cent less than coal. Nuclear power was uniquely placed to reduce carbon emissions, and "we are nearly there in terms of announcing the first new nuclear build."

EDF Energy had predicted that construction of a nuclear power plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset would create 5,000 new jobs, with 800 further jobs once construction was complete. A ground-breaking partnership had been agreed with unions.

"The UK energy sector is uniquely placed to provide the most effective stimulus to growth in these times of economic austerity," Coyne said. Unions would ensure these were skilled, professional jobs with a knock-on benefit throughout the supply chain.

There was a lively discussion from the floor, with questions about the safety of nuclear power, what to do with waste and whether the right skills existed within the industry.

Clancy said the current waste challenge was the legacy of earlier civil and military nuclear programmes. Advances in technology meant that new nuclear power stations would only add 'incrementally' to the problem.

"There is also a waste issue with thermal technologies – coal and gas – in terms of carbon emissions and the point of the carbon price is to reflect that. Nuclear is carbon free."

He added: "You cannot build a national electricity system purely based on renewables. Each option has its challenges; each requires instruments to make them acceptable in a market environment; each requires some form of subsidy."

Responding to a question from a German trade unionist, Clancy said even though Germany had abandoned nuclear power for coal after Fukushima, it continued to import nuclear power from France. As an island, the UK had to make its own policy choices.

"People need to turn the electricity on for civilisation. Engineers can design anything, but they have to know where the base load electricity is coming from," he stressed.

Responding to a former miner, Clancy said that while he might like to see a nationalised energy industry, it would never happen during his career.

Though the UK was sitting on indigenous coal, there was no will from the government to reopen the coal mines and carbon capture and storage was not at an industrial scale anywhere in the world. UK companies had failed to make the economics work on CCS demonstration plants.

Coyne highlighted major advances in technology, including the re-use of waste products in a way never dreamed of before.

Far more radioactive waste was produced by the NHS than nuclear power, he added.

The last safety survey of the public had shown 64 per cent of people expressing satisfaction with nuclear power.

The statistics for deaths and accidents in coal mines, and experiences like the Piper Alpha oil rig disaster, showed the dangers inherent in all energy options.

"Nobody in this room is saying nuclear is completely safe. Every form of energy comes with a risk. We have to ensure that the safety aspects are second to none and we are confident that we are doing our part."