Build more nuclear plants, Royal Society says

Britain's national academy of sciences is urging the Government to end its self-imposed moratorium on the building of nuclear power stations when it publishes its Energy White Paper later this year.

The Royal Society, the UK's leading scientific body, says in a statement issued today that doing nothing on nuclear power is not an option if the Government wants to cut emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas.

A failure to end its silence over nuclear power and commit itself to replacing Britain's ageing power stations will leave the Government with only two options: either it can boost fossil fuel consumption, which will result in a rise in greenhouse gases, or it can abandon nuclear power for good and opt for a massiveinvestment in renewable sources of "green" energy, the Royal Society says.

The UK relies on nuclear power to meetabout a quarter of its energy needs but all the power stations reach the end of their lives within the next 30 years – half of them by 2020.

The joint statement from the Royal Society's president and four vice-presidents says: "One of the major challenges facing the UK is how to generate electricity whilst minimising the damage that can be caused by waste products. But in the short to medium term, it is difficult to see how we can reduce our dependence on fossil fuels without the help of nuclear power.

"If the White Paper extends the present moratorium on constructing new nuclear power stations until, say, after the next election, it is difficult to see how this could be described as 'keeping the nuclear option open'.

"Even with a commitment to continue planning, and with the moratorium lifted after this period, no new nuclear power stations would be in operation in the UK within the next 15 years, by which time our nuclear capacity will have halved," the Royal Society says.

The UK could do better in terms of using renewable sources of energy, such as wind, solar and tidal power, as well as cutting down on waste by improving energy efficiency. "However, most experts agree that the UK target of generating 10 per cent of electricity from renewable sources by 2010 is already very ambitious," the Royal Society says.

"Higher levels of investment would be required to allow adequate development of renewables and energy-efficiency measures to completely make up for the shortfall in energy supply resulting from the closure of nuclear power stations.

"One of the problems often cited in connection with the development of renewable and nuclear sources of energy is that they appear to be uneconomic compared to fossil fuels. This is based on the flawed assumption that there is no cost associated with pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

"The Government needs to introduce a charge for the right to produce carbon dioxide, through, for example, a carbon tax or a system of tradable emissions permits," it says.

Professor David Wallace, the vice-president of the Royal Society in charge of energy policy, says the issue is cutting emissions. "If the White Paper is going to do that and not lay us open to the risk of increasing carbon dioxide emissions by phasing out nuclear power, then the Government has got to commit itself to building new nuclear power stations.

"The lead time is so long, the decision has to be made now," he said.