Atomic power can help fight global warming

He also stressed the need to guarantee security of supplies and reduce rising dependence on imported oil and gas as supplies from the North Sea dwindle.

"There are two big challenges we have got to face. One is climate change because we can't go on pumping carbon into the atmosphere. The second is security of supply. If we don't do anything we will be importing more gas from sometimes pretty unstable parts of the world," Darling told BBC radio.

"In relation to nuclear, which ... has been part of the energy mix in this country and should remain so, if we don't do anything it will reduce from producing about 20 percent of our electricity today to six percent in about 20 years," he added.

He was speaking ahead of presenting to parliament the eagerly awaited Energy Review setting out the structure of Britain's electricity network for future generations.

The decision to back a new generation of nuclear power plants as all but one of Britain's ageing reactors will close within two decades will boost the global nuclear industry as it starts to recover from the Chernobyl explosion in 1986.

Nuclear power, seen by some as a weapon in the fight against global warming because it emits no climate changing carbon gases, and energy security will also dominate the agenda at this weekend's summit in Russia of the Group of Eight rich nations.

Darling said renewables, that supply only four percent of Britain's electricity, should do far more but would not be able to plug the gap as the old nuclear and coal plants close. Continued...

"I don't think they can fill the whole gap. I think we can do an awful lot more," he said.

"My fear is that if you don't do anything else you are going to get more gas-fired power stations which is not good for the atmosphere and it is not good because you tend to import."

WIND TURBINES
The government wants power companies get more of their supplies from renewables and to boost local generation like rooftop wind turbines and solar panels.

It also wants to streamline the planning process to avoid lengthy and costly delays.

But it has a dilemma in that it has also repeatedly ruled out any public subsidies for new nuclear power stations in view of the 70 billion pounds it will cost to clean up the lethal waste from the existing fleet.