BBC business analysis: Investors to calculate nuclear returns

[Dogmudgeon]

One of the big class of arguments made by both pro- and anti-nuclearists concerns the economics of nuclear energy. With the new government in England, a change is occurring in the way nuclear energy investment will be conducted. This BBC News on-line article is an excellent backgrounder for people at all points on the pro/anti scale. Instead of being an advocacy or protest piece, it lays out most of the arguments that affect investment. To be fair, it does give more space to the conservative arguments of the investors and anti-nuclearists, but these are the same arguments the pro-nuclearists seek to answer.

Investors to calculate nuclear returns

On Tuesday, Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks is expected to make public Britain's intention to invite the private sector to build a series of new nuclear power plants.

He will most likely argue that such new builds would not only be cleaner than fossil fuels, but also be a commercially attractive alternative that could be achieved without subsidies.

And he will no doubt be met with a host of naysayers who will point out that that so far nuclear power plants have been hugely expensive to build, their running costs have been large, the bill for cleaning up after them is set to run into billions of pounds, and across the board cost overruns are common.

But while the antis feel empowered by their arsenal of economic arguments, proponents insist costs have plummeted.

And in truth, who is right depends largely on who does the maths, and how.

Read the entire article at BBC News on-line.

--p!