Total costs of producing nuclear power, including construction and decommissioning, are likely to be US$46 per megawatt-hour in 2010, less than the US$50.80 for a gas-fired station and the US$54.39 for a coal-fired plant, a study published in March by UBS AG said. The calculation assumes oil prices fall to US$32.50 a barrel, after 2007. If oil prices slid below US$28, nuclear wouldn't be competitive against gas, UBS said.
Also, nuclear power plants are heavily subsidized by governments and taxpayer money. The UK government in November 2002 agreed to give US$2.74 billion of aid to British Energy Group Plc, whose nuclear plants supply about one-fifth of the nation's power. The cash was earmarked for liabilities including nuclear cleanup.
Today, nuclear energy is opposed by 52 percent of Britons, according to a survey last month by ICM Research for the British Broadcasting Corp. Blair, who has made tackling climate change a priority while leading the Group of Eight nations this year, won't rule out a new round of nuclear construction.
A UK study released in December showed the nation will be "some way short" of a goal for a 20 percent cut in carbon dioxide emissions by the end of 2010 unless more programs are put in place, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said in a strategy document.
Blair must decide by 2009 whether to replace the nation's eight nuclear power stations that will reach the end of their life within the next 30 years. Unless new stations are built, the share of electricity generated by nuclear power will drop to about 7 percent in 2020 from about a fifth now.
"Britain has had a significant amount of its energy from nuclear power in the past," Blair said in an interview during this year's election campaign. "It won't in the future unless a new generation of power stations is built."
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