5.3.1 Background

Cheap, abundant and reliable energy is an essential component of modern life and governments invariably aim to have policies that will deliver secure and adequate supplies at lowest cost. One consequence of this is the regulation of electricity and gas prices and widespread subsidies on end-user fossil fuel prices — estimated at $312 billion per annum18 in 2009. Against this we have the fear of anthropogenically forced climate change, which leads governments to act to reduce CO2 emissions. Given these opposing pressures, nuclear power may seem to be a godsend: an abundant, secure and reliable source of power at reasonable cost with low carbon emissions. It is not surprising that an increasing number of IAEA member states have signalled their intention to construct NPPs in the coming decades and, notwithstanding the Fukushima accident, this seems unlikely to change.

With the notable exception of the USA, almost every NPP currently operating today was constructed under government sponsorship. This was usually in the form of direct action by a government-owned agency or utility or through the provision of government loans. Times change and the tendency nowadays is for governments to take a more hands-off approach. This greater distance does not stem from lack of interest but, rather, from the unwillingness of many governments to accept commercial risks that could be taken on by the private sector and from a belief that public sector projects are rarely models for efficiency and cost control.