Prime Minister Gordon Brown has promised that a decision on whether Britain should build new nuclear power stations will be made early next year.
Eighteen of Britain's 23 nuclear reactors
will reach the end of their lives by 2015
Mr Brown told delegates at the Confederation of British Industry's annual conference in London yesterday that the time for public debate had finished. He said the controversial decision over Britain's nuclear future must be made to ensure security of energy supplies over the next decades.
Although the Government insists that it has not decided about more nuclear stations, many experts believe that it is a question of when, not if, the power stations are built. A decision had been held up by a judicial appeal won by Greenpeace in February.
Mr Brown told the conference: "We must - and we will - take the right long-term decisions to invest for the next generation of sustainable and secure energy supplies.
"We have said that new nuclear power stations potentially have a role to play in tackling climate change and improving energy security. And having concluded the full public consultation, we will announce our final decision early in the New Year."
Eighteen of Britain's 23 nuclear reactors will reach the end of their lives by 2015. Ministers want to increase the amount of energy from low carbon sources by encouraging more nuclear power and overseeing a three-fold increase in energy generated from renewable sources - from 5pc to 20pc - by 2015.
Mr Brown also endorsed plans to build a third runway at Heathrow airport, which some estimates say could cost £13bn. Mr Brown said that he understood the urgent need to increase capacity.
He said: "Britain as a world financial centre must be readily accessible from around the world."
The Prime Minister added that there was "no doubt" that financial turbulence in the US had crossed the Atlantic to Europe, but he said the UK economy had the ability to "hold a stable course". However, a CBI survey published yesterday found that 35pc of small and medium-sized businesses were either experiencing difficulties borrowing or expected to have problems in the next year.
The Bank of England's chief economist warned yesterday that the impact of the credit crunch on the banks so far is only the tip of the iceberg. Charles Bean said that the banks had so far reported "only a relatively small fraction of the likely losses associated with the US sub-prime market".
"It is quite likely that, over the coming months, there will be more revelations to come out; not necessarily just in this country," he added.
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