The country will have a new generation of nuclear power stations within eight years, Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne said yesterday, as he insisted he had been miscast as an opponent of atomic energy.
In a move that will surprise many of his Liberal Democrat colleagues who oppose nuclear power, Mr Huhne insisted that he had not changed his stance on atomic power.
‘My views on nuclear power have always been much misunderstood,’ he said. ‘We are on course to make sure that the first new nuclear power station opens on time in 2018.’
He said it was clear that MPs would vote in favour of new nuclear power stations provided there was no public subsidy involved.
The Lib Dem manifesto, on which the party campaigned three months ago, said the party would ‘reject a new generation of nuclear power stations based on the evidence nuclear is a far more expensive way of reducing carbon emissions than promoting energy conservation and renewable energy’.
However speaking on the BBC’s Today programme yesterday, Mr Huhne said he believed ‘there will be investment in new nuclear and that will be an important part of our energy mix’.
He added: ‘We have absolutely no intention of the lights going out on my watch, I can assure you, and that’s going to be a mix of different technologies precisely because of the uncertainties which exist in the future about which are likely to be most effective.’
