A survey of Building readers has reaffirmed the construction industry’s enthusiasm for a new generation of nuclear power stations.

Building asked industry figures whether the government should commission new reactors and more than 75% responded in favour. However, almost the same proportion said they would be reluctant to see the government use PFI.

The findings lend weight to another study this week commissioned by the Electrical Engineering Federation, which represents the interest of manufacturing at all levels in the government.

The EEF found that nuclear power would be a cheaper way of providing energy than gas when gas prices are high, as they are now.

The federation said that nuclear plants could be built at half the cost of offshore wind farms. It said nuclear plants could be built at a cost of £32 per megawatt hour. This compares with a of cost £71 per megawatt hour for offshore wind farms.

Nuclear power now provides a fifth of the UK’s electricity, although all but one of Britain’s 12 nuclear power stations will be closed by 2023.

The federation said there was no time to lose because its members had been hit by a 50-80% rise in wholesale power prices this summer and might have supplies cut to protect domestic users during this winter and next.

The government must take a lead over nuclear power stations

EEF head Martin Temple

Martin Temple, the director general of the federation, said: “The government must take a clear lead on this issue to create a secure environment that will encourage investment in energy sources.”

Meanwhile, energy minister Malcolm Wicks has hinted that nuclear power stations could be fast-tracked through the planning system to solve the looming UK energy crisis.

In an interview with Building, Wicks said: “If we go down the nuclear route then how we can speed up planning should be part of the agenda. It shouldn’t be beyond the wit of us to think of ways of reducing the timescale.”

Wicks said the funding of the stations had not been worked out: “What we will need is a very special relationship between the public and private sectors. The economics of nuclear is one of the crunch issues that will have to be looked at.”

However, he emphasised that the stations would be privately funded. He said: “We have a market economy in energy so we no longer fund major infrastructure for gas or electricity, and we are not going to do that for nuclear new-build.”