Prime Minister sets out blueprint for addressing global nuclear challenges

The Prime Minister today set out a number of wide-ranging measures to address the key nuclear challenges of the modern era and to lead international efforts to promote greater global nuclear security.

The Road to 2010 paper published today sets out an ambitious plan of action across the full range of global nuclear challenges - from establishing the right conditions for nuclear power to play its part in combating climate change, global poverty and energy shortages, to ensuring that nuclear material is held securely across the globe, to urgent action to address the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and progress in building the international partnerships we need to deliver a world free from nuclear weapons.

It sets out a detailed plan of action by the UK – in partnership with other countries – in the run up to next year when the world will gather to review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Among the specific measures announced today are:

* A new Nuclear Centre of Excellence in the UK to promote wider access to civil nuclear power across the world, to make a reality of the right of all countries - enshrined in the NPT - to the peaceful use of nuclear power. It will promote the development of cost-effective civil nuclear technology which cannot be diverted for use in weapons programmes. This Centre, to be developed in partnership with industry and other countries, will receive initial funding of £20million from the Government.

* A renewed emphasis on nuclear security and preventing nuclear terrorism. In order to help reduce the risk that nuclear material will be lost or stolen, the Prime Minister has offered assistance to any nation with security improvements should they request our help, building on our long experience as a nuclear nation. The Road to 2010 also announces £3million of new funding for nuclear forensics work in the UK. This is part of a strategy to establish nuclear security as a new pillar of the global nuclear framework.

The Prime Minister said:

“The world needs a renewed global bargain for nuclear energy. We need this to make the world safer, more prosperous, and better able to combat climate change and to secure the energy supply we need.

We must seize the new momentum for meeting this challenge. Our Road to 2010 plan sets out an ambitious but achievable set of reforms across the entire nuclear question. Next year's Review Conference gives us the opportunity I want to renew and re-invigorate the bargain at the heart of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

For nuclear weapon states, this bargain means we have a responsibility to show leadership on the question of disarmament and being at the forefront of developing global solutions to allow wider and safe access to civil nuclear power. For non-nuclear weapon states the bargain means continuing to forego nuclear weapons, while accessing - if they wish - civil nuclear power.

Iran is a test case. The UK and the international community stand ready to help Iran achieve a peaceful civil nuclear programme. We make the same offer to Iran as to other countries - we will help you gain access to nuclear power for peaceful purposes, but we will do everything we can to prevent weapons proliferation. The new Centre of Excellence we are announcing today is proof of our intention to develop the science needed for the peaceful, proliferation-free expansion of nuclear power.

The world also needs to pay more attention to the challenge of nuclear security. Britain will play a leading role in this global effort. That is why today we are announcing further funding for our world-leading nuclear forensics work. Building on recent discussions at the G8, I am also calling on international partners to work with us to establish nuclear security as a new pillar of the international nuclear framework. A major milestone on the path to achieving this is President Obama’s nuclear security conference in March, and we will work with him and leaders across the globe to deliver on this agenda.”

Taken together, the measures announced today will help the UK to lead international efforts over the next 12 months and beyond in achieving material and sustainable global nuclear security.

CBI energy report - Greenpeace response

In a report released yesterday the CBI has called call for the contribution from wind power to be reduced in favour of nuclear energy as means of decarbonising the electricity sector.

Commenting on the CBI report, Greenpeace executive director John Sauven said:

"The CBI claims to represent the interests of British industry, but by calling for wind power's contribution to our renewable energy targets to be reduced it's actually doing its members a great disservice."

He continued:

"Nuclear power is less effective than wind power at tackling climate change, while investment in renewables would create much needed British jobs in one of the few growth sectors in the global economy. Here in the UK we have one of the best renewable energy resources anywhere in the world and a manufacturing sector champing at the bit to capture the lead in marine technologies like offshore wind and tidal power."

The government's business advisory group - set up to accelerate the transition to a low carbon economy - concluded in a report last week that by meeting its renewable energy targets the UK would create 250,000 jobs and generate revenue of £70bn from wind and wave technology by 2050. The report also added that by 2020 the UK could become a world leader in offshore wind, capturing 45 per cent of the global offshore wind power industry.

Instead of working to realise this much needed boost to the UK economy, Greenpeace believes the CBI has prioritised representing members like EDF which are interested only in pushing a new generation of nuclear reactors in the UK, which will do little to deliver a secure, indigenous, globally replicable solution to the problems of climate change and energy security while creating jobs. The record of the nuclear industry in delivering cheap, reliable energy is poor (construction of a new Finnish reactor - touted as a example of how nuclear can deliver - is now three years behind schedule after three years of construction, and substantially over budget).

Sauven added:

"The existing bill for nuclear waste already stretches beyond £100bn, but that hasn't stopped EDF already calling for renewable energy to be constrained because it has the potential to render new nuclear stations even more uneconomic. The company can't even deliver its only new reactor construction, at Flammenville in northern France, on time or on budget. It's a shame that the Confederation of British Industry is lobbying furiously for a French state-owned energy giant instead of UK-based renewables companies."

EDF staff charged with spying on French government office

Top staff at nuclear energy giant Electricite de France (EDF) have been charged on suspicion of spying on Greenpeace.

Two security chiefs at the French government-owned company are accused of conspiring to hack into Greenpeace computer systems in France. Three others have also been charged, including a computer expert and the head of a private investigation firm. The computer expert has already admitted the charge.

The head of Greenpeace UK is today seeking assurances that EDF, who are the front-runners to build new nuclear reactors in Britain, have not been spying on staff at Greenpeace's London offices.

EDF confirmed yesterday that authorities had searched their premises and an investigation had been opened for "fraudulent intrusion into computer systems".

EDF have recently bought British Energy, owners of almost all of the UK's nuclear power sites, and have an intense interest in shifting the nuclear debate in Britain.

John Sauven, head of Greenpeace UK, said: "We want to know if EDF have been spying on us.

"Their staff are already facing spying charges in France, and they've got a very obvious stake in the future of nuclear power in the UK.

"We back cutting-edge renewable energy projects, while EDF openly admit that such schemes would scupper their nuclear plans.

"So it's now very much up to EDF to say if they've been using underhand tactics in this country."

The spying revelations have already caused a furore in France, with national media covering the story widely. In 1985 the French government accepted responsibility for the bombing of the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior, in which one crew member died.

Gordon Brown's brother, Andrew, is head of media relations at EdF.