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2007 – A Year of Missed Opportunity - Our response to the Governments Consultation

by Mr Chris Dockree @ 11/02/2008 17:14:55

2007 – A Year of Missed Opportunity - Our response to the Governments Consultation

The combined response of the Institution of Nuclear Engineers (INucE) and the British Nuclear Energy Society (BNES) to the questions posed by the Consultation Documents entitled The Future of Nuclear Power The Role of Nuclear Power in a Low Carbon UK Economy, issued in May 2007 at the same time as the Energy White Paper, has been sent to the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.
The responses were collated by Rick Lockwood, President Elect of the lNucE, who produced two comprehensive briefing papers based on the Consultation Documents, which were forwarded to all members of the INucE Council and BNES Executive and all lNucE/BNES Branches in the UK, thereby proactively soliciting views of individual senior nuclear professionals and, in the case of the branches, the views of the combined membership. Therefore, these responses represent the collated, combined and collective view of over 2,500 nuclear professionals and people working across most UK nuclear industries. The response consisted of a covering letter and a series of enclosures which provided a response to each of the issues raised in the consultation document.
A summary of the main points raised in the covering letter is provided below:
‘The lNucE and SNES (hereafter referred to as we’) consider that both Consultation Documents make a reasonable, accurate and robust case for shaping the policy on the future of civil nuclear power in the UK.
While we have made detailed comments and suggestions relating to each consultation question, we firmly believe that the Governments proposed actions for tackling climate change and its energy- related strategy between now and 2050, including putting in place transparent processes for reactor plant Justification and Strategic Siting Assessment and facilitating the option for new nuclear build as part of a balanced energy policy, is fundamental to the future general security of the UK and of its general prosperity.
We believe that one of the most important ethical and inter-generational considerations for adopting new nuclear build is that of the positive benefits to future generations in terms of carbon dioxide emission reductions, security of electricity supplies and generating wealth, set against deliberately creating new, albeit manageable, nuclear wastes.
We contend that the positive benefits of new nuclear build far outweigh the manageable nuclear waste issues.
We also consider that there is an important international dimension to this debate in that the industrialised nations which already have significant carbon emissions are encouraging the newly industrialising nations, such as China and India, to constrain their carbon emissions. In this regard, we firmly believe that the UK should set an example and reduce its own carbon footprint to as low as is reasonably practicable and that this can be achieved by private investors generating electricity by cost-effective low carbon forms of generation, which includes new nuclear build.
As existing nuclear power stations are coming to the end of their lives, we consider that not allowing power companies to invest in new nuclear power stations would increase our dependence on fewer technologies and significantly expose the UK to risks to the security of its electricity supplies. Therefore, we urge the Government to take a positive decision on new nuclear power stations in the very near future, thus facilitating a readily available, proven and cost effective way of producing electricity that, importantly, demonstrates the UK Government’s commitment to meeting its national carbon reduction strategy thus encouraging other nations to do likewise’

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