by Starvid
Tue Jan 8th, 2008 at 11:06:20 AM EST
A new generation of nuclear power stations will be encouraged to supply unlimited amounts of electricity to the national grid, The Times has learnt.
??!
The Cabinet will give the go-ahead for the new building programme today and John Hutton, the Business Secretary, will announce the decision on Thursday.
He will pave the way for the nuclear industry to play a much bigger part in meeting Britain's energy needs by making plain that there will be no limit on the amount of electricity it can supply to the grid.
At present nuclear power accounts for 20 per cent of energy supplies.
The price that the Government will make the nuclear power operators pay to supply unlimited electricity is that they will have to meet the costs of decommissioning power stations and of managing and disposing of waste. Legislation will be promised by Mr Hutton to safeguard the taxpayer from such costs, although critics will maintain that it will merely result in higher electricity bills.
So... The nuclear industry will have to deal with its own spent fuel, something so blindingly obvious ("polluter pays", remember?) that it shouldn't even warrant mentioning, and as a "reward" they will be given the right to produce as much as... they can?
Isn't that also blindingly obvious, especially in a deregulated market? Why does the Secretary even have to mention it, and why is Times covering it?
