\n<\/p>\n
Ed Miliband has unveiled plans to cut regulations, costs and bureaucracy by the end of next year to speed up the development of nuclear power generation.<\/p>\n
The UK government said the changes, to be carried out this year, would deliver a \u201cwin-win for building critical infrastructure while protecting nature and the environment\u201d.<\/p>\n
However, ministers were quickly accused of \u201cirresponsible deregulation\u201d and putting nature at risk.<\/p>\n
The shake-up means the government will implement recommendations of a review completed last year by the Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce review completed last year, which was led by the former Office of Fair Trading boss John Fingleton.<\/p>\n
It said an overhaul of the \u201coverly complex\u201d and \u201cbureaucratic\u201d system which \u201cfavoured process over safe outcomes\u201d was needed.<\/p>\n
Miliband, the energy secretary, said: \u201cAs the current Middle East conflict shows, we need to go further and faster to build the clean energy we need to get off volatile fossil fuel markets and deliver energy security for our country.<\/p>\n
\u201cA crucial part of this is ensuring that we speed up the building of infrastructure in a way that reduces costs as well as delivering better outcomes for nature.\u201d<\/p>\n
In June, Miliband announced a \u00a314.2bn programme to build a new nuclear power station, including a multibillion-pound investment at Sizewell C on the Suffolk coast, and a drive to build small modular reactors (SMRs).<\/p>\n
On Friday, Emma Reynolds, the environment secretary, published the regulatory justification for Rolls-Royce\u2019s plan to become the first company to try and build SMRs in the UK.<\/p>\n
The government said the introduction of the regulatory reforms meant it was likely to be the last time that this type of mini-nuclear power plant needed to go through such a lengthy process.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo build national resilience, drive energy security and deliver economic growth, we need nuclear,\u201d said Rachel Reeves, the chancellor. \u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019re overhauling the system, getting rid of duplicative or overly complex guidance, rules and regulations that have been holding back our nuclear ambitions.\u201d<\/p>\n
The government said the nub of the plan was to move to a regulatory system that is \u201cproportionate, focused on real risk, rooted in evidence\u201d, while also designed to \u201ceffectively protect nature and biodiversity\u201d.<\/p>\n
John Healey, the defence secretary, said: \u201cIn this new era for defence, our nuclear weapons deter the most extreme threats to national security, sending the ultimate warning to anyone who seeks to do us harm.\u201d .<\/p>\n
However, top environmental planning lawyer Alexa Culver of RSK Wilding said: \u201cNo ecologists or environmental specialists were invited to shape these proposals into anything that resembles a \u2018win\u2019 for nature.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is irresponsible deregulation at a time when the true human and national costs of nature degradation is becoming more fully understood.<\/p>\n
\u201cRecently popularised and devastating environmental scandals \u2013 like within the water industry \u2013 prove that high-stakes regulation is complex and easily manipulated when \u2018simplified\u2019 without checks and balances. This was a chance for the government to design resilience into our industrial strategy and the government didn\u2019t take it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The government also said that more than 500 doctoral students would be trained over four annual intakes, quadrupling the current intake of those studying nuclear PhDs.<\/p>\n
It was also backing seven research programmes with \u00a365.6m of new funding, which would be matched by industry partners, to be carried out by universities across the UK.<\/p>\n
\u201cNuclear power is essential to deliver our energy independence and achieve net zero,\u201d said Charlotte Brumpton-Childs, national officer for nuclear at the GMB union. \u201cOur members stand ready to build the next generation of nuclear power right across the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n
The nuclear regulatory taskforce was set up by Keir Starmer in February after the government promised to rip up \u201carchaic rules\u201d and slash regulations to \u201cget Britain building\u201d.<\/p>\n
Starmer accepted the recommendations in December, saying he wanted to use the approach to inform the government\u2019s wider industrial strategy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ed Miliband has unveiled plans to cut regulations, costs and bureaucracy by the end of next year to speed up the development of nuclear power generation. The UK government said the changes, to be carried out this year, would deliver a \u201cwin-win for building critical infrastructure while protecting nature and the environment\u201d. However, ministers were<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[3626,427,1669,220,480,1664,2244,908],"class_list":{"0":"post-46635","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-generation","9":"tag-infrastructure","10":"tag-miliband","11":"tag-nuclear","12":"tag-plans","13":"tag-power","14":"tag-speed","15":"tag-unveils"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}