The government's nuclear plans

After two controversial consultations, ministers have moved not one jot from their view nuclear power is in Britain's vital long term interest.

Business Secretary John Hutton told MPs today the new plants would be built by private firms at their own cost at or near existing reactors.

They would be part of a package of "low-carbon" energy development and he hoped the first nuclear plant would be completed "well before 2020".

"The Government believes it is in the public interest that new nuclear power stations should have a role to play in this country's future energy mix" said Hutton.

This was the final step in Labour's long-term conversion from the days of CND protests and the"Nuclear Power: No Thanks" buttons.

Nuclear power has had a chequered history from the early optimism of electricity too cheap to metre, to the collapse of British Energy that left taxpayers with a bill of at least £70 billion and an industry apparently dead in the water.

Calder Hall's cooling towers were demolished last year as the plant reached the end of its life and intense lobbying by the industry finally paid off.

Rising oil and gas prices and carbon pricing penalties for fossil fuels have made nuclear power financially more competitive.

The government hopes today's announcement will finally persuade reluctant investors to stump up for nuclear power. EDF, which runs nuclear plants in France, plans four new stations in Britain on two sites.

There will be no subsidies but there are controversial guarantees buried in today's white paper to reduce the risks for nuclear new build. Ministers are prepared to step in to keep the carbon price artificially high to keep nuclear power competitive.

Hutton added: "We will keep open the option of introducing further measures to reinforce the operation of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme in the UK should this be necessary to provide greater certainty for investors."

Many of Britain's old plants, like Hunterston are being decommissioned. The companies who want to build new ones will have to set aside cash to pay for what the government calls their fair share of the costs of disposing of the nuclear waste they'll create. But the government will step in if they get their sums wrong.

Hutton said: "If the protections we are putting in place prove insufficient, in extreme circumstances the government may be called upon to meet the costs of ensuring the protection of the public and the environment."

The government's claims that nuclear power will play a major role in reducing carbon emissions and help offset the risks of dependence on oil and gas from countries that may turn the tap off are rejected by nuclear opponents.

There is an ambitious timetable. The industry and ministers believe the first new nuclear station can be generating by 2018, built alongside an existing nuclear plant, as long as Parliament approves ministers' controversial plans to streamline the planning laws.

It is too late, say opponents, to fill the energy gap caused by the closure of both the existing nuclear stations and many coal-fired plants that will start to bite by 2015 and which will almost certainly be replaced by quick-to-build gas-fired power stations.

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