IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/engenv/v13y2002i2p239-261.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Nuclear Power in the UK Electricity Market: From a Limited Future to Eternal Life and Back Again?

Author

Listed:
  • Steve Thomas

    (Public Service International Research Unit (PSIRU), School of Computing and Mathematics, University of Greenwich, 30 Park Row, London SE10 9LS, UK)

Abstract

In 1990, the privatisation of the British electricity supply industry revealed how uneconomic Britain's nuclear power plants were. The nuclear sector was withdrawn from privatisation and it seemed likely that by 2000, most of Britain's nuclear power plants would be closed. However, operating costs were dramatically reduced and in 1996, most of the nuclear plants were privatised in British Energy. Nuclear output made an important contribution to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and the future looked secure for the existing plants. However, the early success of British Energy was based on an inflated wholesale electricity price and by 2000, British Energy was struggling to cover its costs. The British government is now conducting a review of energy policy. The economic case for new nuclear power plants is poor but the need to meet greenhouse gas emission targets and the influence British Energy and BNFL may ensure the long-term future of the existing plants.

Suggested Citation

  • Steve Thomas, 2002. "Nuclear Power in the UK Electricity Market: From a Limited Future to Eternal Life and Back Again?," Energy & Environment, , vol. 13(2), pages 239-261, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:engenv:v:13:y:2002:i:2:p:239-261
    DOI: 10.1260/0958305021501191
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1260/0958305021501191
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1260/0958305021501191?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Energy policy; nuclear power; UK;
    All these keywords.

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:engenv:v:13:y:2002:i:2:p:239-261. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.