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Energy Policy: Nuclear Power

My Lords, I start by thanking the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, for his rather inspired speech, although I think I will leave the love analogies to others. I also thank the two maiden speakers for their contributions. The speech of the noble Lord, Lord Cunningham, was excellent. I knew that I would have to mention him, so I looked at his entry in Dod On Line. Perhaps I should mention that the noble Lord has a great deal of humility. Under the heading ““career”” he states that he was a research academic at Durham University, and that is it. He has left out of Dod completely his political career, which is an inspired move. I look forward to hearing more speeches from the noble Lord, Lord Turnbull, after his illuminating contribution. He understands the arcane workings of decision making from the inside of government. Like the noble Lord, Lord Tombs, I read the consultative document Our Energy Challenge in preparation for this debate, a fine document featuring a picture of the planet on the cover. That is always a worrying aspect. But given that it is a consultation document, I did not bother to read most of it. Initially I went to page 7, which lists the key questions for review. Those key questions guide consultees on what they are supposed to be answering. It is clear, as the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, pointed out, that the whole purpose of the consultation paper is set out in the third question:"““The Energy White Paper left open the option of nuclear new build. Are there particular considerations that should apply to nuclear as the government re-examines the issues bearing on new build, including long-term liabilities and waste management? If so, what are these, and how should the government address them?””." I believe this document makes the point that the Government are looking at new build. As many noble Lords and many in my party know, I am sceptical about the case for nuclear. I must say that the nuclear industry has done an incredible job over the past 10 years, taking itself out of a position where it looked like nuclear power stations were to be phased out without reprieve to one where it is now seen almost as an environmental champion, coming forward to save the planet. Moreover, I accept that nuclear will have to be reconsidered in the light of global warming. However, a few questions should be asked, ones that the nuclear industry will have to answer. First, I want to ask a question of the Government. The whole debate assumes that the consultation will be taken into account and weighed up, but a number of people have said that for new nuclear build to move forward, primary legislation might well be needed and therefore Parliament will make the decision. But I am not certain that that is the case. If it is not and the consultation reveals a majority in favour of new nuclear build, does it mean that this document will set the parameters for a White Paper leading to the Government declaring that they will move towards nuclear new build? Will Parliament be given the opportunity to debate the option of any nuclear new build, or will the decision be taken? The Prime Minister has already stated that he is keen on the argument, but that might not remain the case because costs will come into it and the decision probably will not be taken before we have another Prime Minister. For that Prime Minister, this will certainly have cost implications. It has been stated that nuclear is needed to keep the lights on. This has been said in three debates in your Lordships’ House, but I challenge it. Although nuclear makes an important contribution to the energy basket as it is made up, it does not provide the baseload. That is supplied by coal and gas, and in the future gas will embrace a larger percentage. Some 19 per cent of our energy is supplied by nuclear generation. Therefore it could be said that to take out the nuclear option would not be to remove the major component. There is also a question mark over how many nuclear power stations will have to be built significantly to increase the proportion of energy supplied by nuclear. The present figures refer to four new nuclear power stations, but they certainly will not replace the 25 per cent of energy that was provided by nuclear. If we are going to build a large number of power stations, it raises the question of who will build them. As the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, pointed out, Westinghouse, of course, has now been sold to Toshiba. One of the reasons given for that was the risk implications of building nuclear power stations abroad and the fact that the Treasury would not want to underwrite them. But if the Treasury is unwilling to underwrite the risk factors of building nuclear power reactors abroad, who will underwrite the new nuclear build in this country? If the new nuclear build is to take place, will the Treasury underwrite it or will it be underwritten by whoever builds the new reactors? I believe that nuclear reactors could be built a great deal quicker than many people set out. Of course, if the new nuclear reactors are built on sites where there are nuclear power stations at present, that will get rid of many of the question marks over planning. The four new nuclear power stations that have been built in China have come in under budget and under time. But, as was pointed out by the right reverend Prelate, nuclear power still has two hurdles to face, the first being that of waste. It has been pointed out by my noble friend Lord Taverne that waste is now an issue of lesser magnitude. Of course, much of our nuclear waste in the past was built up through military activities, but it is still an issue. It is not any less difficult to deal with; we do not have a solution. A deep-level storage facility is not a solution but a management factor. Do the Government have any estimate of the costs of such deep-level storage facilities? The other hurdle is that of cost. We have referred to many of the aspects of cost, but I am quite concerned about the cost of electricity. If we build these major nuclear power stations, which will last for 50 years—and some of them could last for 50 years—we will need to discuss how we are to set the price for the electricity produced by them. That will have an interesting effect on the cost of electricity from other suppliers. It seems strange that while we are discussing the liberalisation of the gas market in Europe—and I press the Government to do as much as it can to move forward on that issue; it seems ridiculous that we are paying vastly inflated prices for gas when compared with other European customers—we would not expect a set price for energy from the gas suppliers but we might from nuclear. The noble Lord, Lord Turnbull, said that one of the issues that have to be addressed is that the present power stations produce carbon waste. That factor has to be taken into account and I would press the Government to look at the work of Professor Peter Hall of Strathclyde University, who is looking into methods of carbon storage and capture. The aspect of clean coal should be looked at. Professor Hall deals with prototype work carried out in Scotland by industry and the University of Strathclyde to sequester carbon dioxide in unmineable coal seams 3,000 feet down under the central belt. They are about to undertake a two-year programme which would see flue gas similar to that produced by the Longannet coal-fired power station injected deep down. As a by-product, the methane gas which would then be pumped to the surface could be burnt, the sales revenue from which could cover the drilling costs. Billions of tonnes of carbon could be placed underground safely. It would bond with the coal and therefore would not come to the surface. A question for the Government is: why are they not investing more in clean coal-fired technologies? If we are to make coal and gas—which produce so much of our energy—carbon neutral and prevent global warming, we have to start investing seriously in this technology. Will the Government look again at co-fired biomass which is under threat due to the capping of the renewable obligations? This issue has to be addressed; it is one way of making clean coal sustainable if biomass is to be grown and burnt alongside coal. However, the big changes to the renewable obligations, where a cap on this is being considered, are not supplying the amount of security for farmers to grow the stuff in the first place. We are looking at another collapse in the biomass market. I was going to talk about wind and the possibility of a new 10 megawatt turbine that is under development, but I have run out of time. However, I will finish on this one point. I understand that the energy review is looking at a basket-case of energy.