Energy department 'to press ahead with nuclear'

The economic downturn will not affect government plans to create a new generation of nuclear power stations, the energy minister will today confirm.

Mike O'Brien is expected to use a speech to Chatham House on Monday to say that nuclear is a good way of tackling rising energy costs and other recessionary pressures.

He is set to say that electricity costs could rise significantly without the use of nuclear. And he will warn that this could result in an increase in the number of people in fuel poverty, spending more than 10 per cent of their income on energy costs.

"Without nuclear, the cost of generating the country's electricity could be up to 40 per cent higher. And higher costs would mean higher prices for consumers," he will say.

"Following a high-cost approach - which I think a non-nuclear path would commit us to - would compromise our economic future. It would hurt our pockets, potentially plunging more people into fuel poverty."

"We want an economy that grows and [carbon] emissions that shrink. Putting ideological ideas above sober analysis could lead to zero growth or, worse still, declining living standards."

The news comes after the sale of British Energy to French-owned EDF, which last month agreed to take over the company's eight nuclear power plants in the UK in a £12.5bn deal.

And Department of Energy and Climate Change officials told the FT that the speech was intended to show that Ed Miliband's new team will be pressing ahead with creating a new generation of reactors as a matter of urgency.