Nuclear power in Europe

Britain has been accused of trying to water down a European Union directive designed to give renewable energy sources such as wind, wave and solar power easier access to national electricity grids.

The UK has been pushing to amend a key passage in the directive, so that instead of saying EU member-states "shall" give priority access to renewables, it would say only that they "may" do so if they wish, The Guardian reported.

PARIS (AFP) — Newly formed global energy giant GDF Suez of France is interested in nuclear power operator British Energy but only if the company is split up and sold off site by site.

"If the plan remains to sell British Energy in one go, then it will be sold without us," said GDF Suez head Gerard Mestrallet in an interview with Les Echos daily to appear Thursday.

Britain must build "at least" eight new nuclear power stations during the next 15 years to replace its ageing plants and contribute to a "post-oil economy" that is cleaner and much more efficient than in the era of "cheap energy and careless pollution", Gordon Brown signalled last night. The first new reactors could feed electricity into the national grid by 2017.

Ministers want the private sector to make the running, but fear that the parallel contraction of the UK's coal and oil-fired generating capacity, on environmental grounds, will trigger a serious energy gap unless the government moves decisively.

It has been revealed that it will take more than 100 years before the toxic nuclear site in Sellafield is safe.

A report from Westminster's Public Accounts Committee says the UK's largest atomic power station will not be completely clean until 2120.

The South Down SDLP MP, Eddie McGrady, described the nuclear waste as a time bomb waiting to happen. 'They are not only producing but importing the dirty stuff from the rest of the world, it is incredible,' he said.