UK Government Officials Decline Invitation to Public Nuclear Cost Debate

The UK government has said they will not attend a public debate being held today to discuss the price of new nuclear power. In attendance at the debate will be industry players for the nuclear sector, academics on nuclear power, and several other financially vested individuals.

Senior research associate at Warwick University, Paul Dorfman, is the host and organizer for today’s event. Dorfman says the refusal of the invitation to attend the event is proof that ministers fear the financial situation of nuclear power in regards to consumers and taxpayers.

EDF and Centrica, both of whom have nuclear reactor projects in the works, are set to attend the meeting which will be held at Portcullis House later on today. The Office for Nuclear Development, located at the nearby Houses of Parliament, have said that for this meeting officials have declined to attend.

Dorfman says that ministers have agreed to meet privately to discuss price issues, but have refused to hold such talks in a public venue. Dorfman credits this to ministers’ fears about being challenged in the public arena.

Currently, the government has been promising nuclear developers taxpayers’ money for cost overruns generated from decommissioning nuclear reactors and waste storage. These same officials are responsible for setting prices on the waste and it is believed that they are deliberately making prices high in order to out weigh any cost overrun.

Gordon MacKerron, former chairman of the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management, has said publicly that it will be years before anyone is able to say what the total cost is and whether or not this will effect taxpayers.