The revelation will put further scrutiny on the new government's promise that there will be no subsidy for nuclear power. Liberal Democrat Chris Huhne, the new energy and climate change secretary of state, admitted to the Guardian this week that the government already faces a £4bn funding black hole over existing radioactive waste.
The previous government had planned to charge the industry a high, fixed, disposal levy tied to the amount of nuclear waste it produced. It had also originally told the industry that responsibility for the waste should be transferred to the state only once the waste had been disposed of, at least 110 years from the start of a reactor's operations. Both proposals were deeply unpopular with the industry.
In March, the Labour government published revised proposals that made significant concessions on both issues. Consultation on the plans will conclude this month. A spokesman for the energy department said the consultation was continuing but declined to comment on whether the new government would take a different approach to the previous administration.
Documents released under a freedom of information request reveal the extent of behind-the-scenes lobbying last year in Whitehall by EDF Energy, the French firm that wants to build the first new reactors in the UK for decades. The lobbying focused on the two key proposals which were revised in March.
In one meeting with officials from the energy department in July last year, EDF Energy's presentation concluded that the original proposals were "non-acceptable" [sic]. In another meeting in October, the presentation warned: "At current levels, [the proposed] fixed price model will significantly impact the economics of NNB [nuclear new build] in the UK and could make an investment unattractive." In a letter in July to the department, the company even warned that the cost calculations could "be open to challenge in future on the grounds of prudency".
A spokesman from Greenpeace said: "These documents blow EDF's claim that they won't need any subsidies for new nuclear clean out of the water. They know full well that the economics of nuclear don't stack up and that new reactors will only ever happen if the British taxpayer is forced yet again to carry the atomic can." Read the full report here.
Source: A report by Tim Webb for www.guardian.co.uk
