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Publicatie Laka-bibliotheek:
The economic failure of nuclear power in Britain (1990)

Auteur	A.Henney
Datum	april 1990
Classificatie	2.05.0.00/12 (GROOT-BRITTANNIË - ALGEMEEN)
Voorkant

CHAPTER l

INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY

To understand the misleading claims that have been made about the economics of 
nuclear power, it is essential to understand its history and the political framework 
within which it has developed in Britain, to appreciate the way in which vested 
interests have evolved, and to realise the effect of three decades of state secrecy, 
deceit and incompetence.

Chapter 2 explains that the British nuclear power programme has been moulded by four 
factors - military requirements, national pride, the hope of cheap electricity, and 
concern about the security of fuel supplies. The military requirement for plutonium 
determined both the institutional approach and the choice of type of early reactor. 
The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority was created as a uniquely powerful 
statutory organisation that was originally responsible for all military and civil 
nuclear activities. The AEA was independent of its main civil customer, the Central 
Electricity Generating Board (CEGB), and was virtually unaccountable and 
uncontrolled by Parliament or the government. The military prerogative also 
determined that we should build gas cooled and graphite moderated reactors, and 
this led to the development of, first, the Magnox type of reactor and, subsequently, 
the advanced gas cooled reactor (AGR).

In February 1955, the government announced a ten year programme to build 1,500-
2,000 MW1 of capacity in Magnox power stations. All of the stations were expensive; 
most overran their construction budget; and some had lengthy and expensive 
commissioning problems. In today's money we spent about £12½bn building Magnox 
reactors for the astonishing cost of £3200/kW of capacity, which is three times the 
cost of building a modem coal fired station.

1 A megawatt (MW) is 1,000 kilowatts (kW) and a gigawatt (GW) is 1,000,000 kW. 
The generation capacity of the British public electricity supply system is now 63,000 
MW.

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