Nuclear Power And Public Subsidies

EDM number 150 in 2010-12, proposed by Paul Flynn on 03/06/2010.
Categorised under the topic of Nuclear power.

That this House notes that successive energy Ministers have said that there will be no subsidies provided for new nuclear plants; further notes in particular the comments made by the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change that his scepticism on nuclear power `is based on whether or not they can make it work without public subsidy. One of the things the Coalition agreed with some passion in the current circumstances of fiscal restraint was that there will be no public subsidy for nuclear power'; further notes he stressed that even support in the event of a disaster was out of the question, insisting `That would count as a subsidy absolutely. There will be no public bailouts...I have explained my position to the industry and said public subsidies include contingent liabilities'; further notes that chief executives of private power companies operating in this country, such as Vincent de Rivaz, Chief Executive Officer of EDF Energy, have said that they are seeking no subsidies for any new nuclear plants they may build in Britain; believes that comments by such chief executives are disingenuous and misleading because many nuclear subsidies paid for by British taxpayers are already in place, including the multi-billion pound underwriting of insurance liabilities, the research and development for long-term nuclear waste management and facility decommissioning, the donations made to international nuclear research and promotional bodies, including the International Atomic Energy Agency, the EU's Euratom nuclear agency, and to national bodies including the National Nuclear Laboratory, the Nuclear Academy and the Nuclear Institute; further believes in addition that loan guarantees will be sought by companies planning to build new plants; and calls on the Government to exclude all taxpayer-funded direct and indirect subsidies from companies who have expressed interest in building new nuclear power plants in the UK for such construction and operation.

This motion has been signed by a total of 26 MPs, 1 of these signatures have been withdrawn.