"Nuclear Build: A vote of no confidence?"

05.04.2010

Engineers will be interested to study a report published by The Institution of Mechanical Engineers on the nuclear build programme. It has given it the title, "Nuclear Build: A vote of no confidence?"

The report's main recommendation is that more leadership and commitment to the proposed nuclear build programme from both Government and industry is needed if it is to succeed.

Just published: it highlights the growing disparity between government and industry in their visions of a future UK nuclear new build. The starkest difference is the Government's view that the new build will generate 25GW of electricity while IMechE research indicates that this figure could be as low as 13GW. This would only marginally increase the levels of electricity generated by the existing nuclear stock.
Furthermore, many utility companies still have concerns that a future government may not be fully committed to nuclear, moving possibly to a future dash-for-gas.

Commenting on the report, IMechE Head of Energy and Environment, Dr Tim Fox said: "The report reflects comments we have received from our members that Government continues to be slow at showing long term commitment to the sector. Understandably, before private companies invest billions into this sector, they want strong assurances that their investments will have a long-term reliable return. One such assurance could be the provision of loan guarantees, similar to that announced by President Obama in February."

The report, and short introductory video by IMechE Chief Executive Stephen Tetlow, can be found at: http://www.imeche.org/nuclearpower.