May 24, 2007
Tony Blair’s nuclear legacy
In his last significant policy move as prime minister before he steps down in June, Tony Blair’s government has set out its energy strategy for the UK. There is a whole lot of stuff in the announcement: the main paper alone is 341 pages, and there are 25 supporting studies. The UK’s obsession, shared with other EU governments, for trying to combat climate change with a barrage of initiatives, is neatly skewered by this FT editoral.
All anyone really seems to care about, though, is that the UK has moved a step closer to building new nuclear power stations. There is praise for the government from the Nuclear Energy Institute, and a cooler reaction from 3E Intelligence, which identifies Mr Blair as "the man who started the nuclear renaissance in Europe." The problem is that the UK is facing an energy supply problem rather sooner than any new nuclear power stations can plausibly be in service.
Nuclear power may be a long term solution, but Mr Blair’s successor, Gordon Brown, will probably have to come up with some other ideas pretty quickly.
