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Government outlines nuclear build criteria
24 July, 2008The government has announced outlines concerning how it expects to choose sites for its new nuclear power stations.
The government has announced outlines concerning how it expects to choose sites for its new nuclear power stations.
With construction billed for 2013-14, the Strategic Siting Assessment, published by the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), was published yesterday.
There will be two sets of factors involved in deciding on a site for the new power plants, 'exclusionary' and 'discretionary' factors.
Exclusionary factors will be those that make building the site unfeasible, such as seismic risk, and the proximity of the build to populated areas.
Discretionary factors however will be those such as flooding risks, and environmental factors.
With a finalised criteria set for 2009 it is hoped potential contractors can gain an understanding of what is likely to be asked of those commissioned with the building of the new power plants.
Speaking out about the necessity of nuclear power, business secretary John Hutton said: "Alongside a ten-fold increase in renewables and investment in clean coal technology, [nuclear] will help wean us off our dependency on oil and protect us against the politicisation of energy supplies."
The long, drawn-out sale of British Energy (BE) to EDF Energy has come to an end after the French energy firm bought BE for £12.5 billion, it has been reported.
Government hopes to have an EDF Energy-British Energy (BE) tie up within two weeks have been dubbed "optimistic" by the British nuclear company, according to a recent report.
Gordon Brown is facing the prospect of a major defeat over the government's reluctance to impose a windfall tax on energy companies, it has been reported.
The City of London has launched a campaign against Gordon Brown in order to convince him that introducing a windfall tax on energy companies should be avoided.
TaylorWimpey has reported phenomenally poor first half results for the year so far, recording a loss of £1.5 billion, it has been announced.