A report to Greenpeace
Publication date: November 2002
Summary
The Government's central justification for the controversial £50 million loan to British Energy is that the company's nuclear reactors are needed to maintain the security of the UK electricity supply. Greenpeace commissioned this report from ILEX to test that assumption.
Whilst no single piece of analysis can deal with all the issues raised by the closure of a major incumbent of the UK energy system, this report comes to a clear and unequivocal conclusion on this central assumption. It shows that within 2-3 years all of British Energy's nuclear power stations could be closed whilst maintaining a 20% margin of security for the electricity system. In other words, British Energy reactors are not essential to maintain security of supply.
Greenpeace believes that the benefits to the UK environment and taxpayers of early closure of British Energy's stations would be great. We offer this report not as a definitive view of how to do that, but as evidence that it can be done.
