Conservatives pull the plug on nuclear power

Nuclear power has lost its oldest and most loyal political champion after a dramatic U-turn by the Conservative Party.

The Opposition has in effect abandoned the controversial energy source by taking up a new position under which no more reactors could be built in Britain.

The shift in policy is designed to put Tony Blair and his energy ministers on the spot by isolating them in their support for nuclear power as they put the final touches to a White Paper, to be published around the turn of the year.

Now both opposition parties and many Labour MPs believe that no nuclear power stations should be built for the foreseeable future. But Mr Blair still wants to press ahead and construct new reactors.

The new Conservative policy is the result of months of argument and negotiation between pro- and anti-nuclear members of the Shadow Cabinet. The compromise is a victory for the sceptics, buried under a layer of obfuscation.

The policy was slipped out last week in a delicately balanced speech in a House of Commons debate by Tim Yeo, the shadow Trade and Industry Secretary. He insisted that a "responsible government" would want to keep the nuclear option "open", while laying down conditions that would certainly kill it off.

These are that the price of electricity from nuclear power should in future reflect the "environmental costs" of generating it, including the massive sums that will be needed for decommissioning disused reactors and disposing of nuclear waste.

As a sweetener to the industry's supporters in the Conservative Party, nuclear power would be exempt from the climate change levy the Government imposes on it, along with fossil fuels, even though it emits none of the gases causing global warming.

Mr Yeo told The Independent on Sunday: "I am not ideologically pro- or anti-nuclear power, but the market must take account of the different environmental impacts of fuel generation. In the case of nuclear power that means the decommissioning and environmental costs."

The change comes at a most sensitive time for the Government, which is reaching the climax of an internal battle over the future of nuclear power. Recently the balance has shifted in favour of nuclear power after the Treasury, which had opposed it on cost grounds, changed sides because it believed it would offer greater security of supply at a time of increased instability in the Middle Eastern oil fields.

Last night Brian Wilson, the Energy minister, said: "My position is not to get engaged in a policy auction with the Tories but to meet the three criteria for energy policy – security of supply, affordability and meeting our environmental objectives."