UK government may need public subsidy for nuclear reactors

According to the National Audit Office (NAO), the UK government may require public financial backing to construct new nuclear reactors even the government earned huge sum of money after selling its stake in British Energy last year. Earlier, the UK government sold 36 per cent of its share for £4.4 to top French government-run nuclear company EDF Energy.

Amyas Morse, Head of NAO, informed that the transaction happened when energy prices were at their highest, so the UK government was expected to have made good money out of the deal. The funds are said to pay the decommissioning of British Energy’s old power plants, so that new facilities can be built faster and without the need of public funding. Morse advised the government that it should build the new nuclear power facilities in the earliest possible date.

Meanwhile, ever since EDF’s acquisition of British Energy, several of Europe’s largest energy firms revealed interest in constructing the nuclear reactors that the UK government is hoping will help cut the country’s carbon emissions. NAO said that the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) mush have emergency plans should EDF declined to support the nuclear power project.

NAO informed that DECC did not seek while EDF did not offer any joint agreement to put up new nuclear power facilities as a term of the sale. The audit office further added that the government is still liable for funding any future shortfall in decommissioning the existing nuclear power plants of British Energy.