Nuclear energy "uneconomic"

Friends of the Earth Cymru said today that nuclear energy "remains wholly uneconomic", after news that British Energy's latest annual profits have dropped to an all time low of just £10m. The results follow record losses of £337M reported by the state owned British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) last September.

British Energy operates Britain's eight privatised nuclear power plants, and was finally floated in 1996 following the abandonment of similar plans in 1989. The eight stations were sold together for the knock-down price of just £1.5 billion. This is significantly less than the £2.6 billion construction cost of the Sizewell B reactor in Suffolk - one of the eight stations sold - which had been completed only a year before the sale.

Neil Crumpton, energy spokesperson for Friends of the Earth Cymru said:

"The privatised nuclear industry still cannot make a reasonable profit, even after effectively getting eight nuclear power stations for less than the price of one. Today's results show that, while existing reactors can just about continue to survive, no one in their right mind would sink billions of pounds into new nuclear generating plant.

"Today's results should be a lesson for the Government which will have to face down requests from BNFL to subsidise new UK nuclear power plants to deal with Britain's growing stockpile of plutonium waste. BNFL is believed to be planning new nuclear power stations within its draft Corporate Plan but the Government is refusing to publish this to avoid embarrassment during the Election campaign. Friends of the Earth will vigorously fight any call to subsidise new nuclear power stations."

Neil Crumpton was also refused entry today, along with Greenpeace and People Against Wylfa B (PAWB) representatives to even observe an important meeting of the Wylfa Local Community Liaison Council at the station. The station is still shut after a year of technical problems which has cost BNFL about £100 million in lost output.

Neil Crumpton said:

"I am disappointed that the Liaison Council refused to let us even observe the meeting. We would certainly liked to have heard what questions were put to the station managers and their responses. The difficulty in repairing the faulty boiler welds inside both Wylfa reactors could easily spell even more financial trouble for BNFL."