U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Monday that the U.K. will construct 16 gigawatts of new nuclear energy capacity, as part of a drive to reduce carbon emissions.
U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Monday that the U.K. will construct 16 gigawatts of new nuclear energy capacity, as part of a drive to reduce carbon emissions.

"We will now build not 12 gigawatts of nuclear capacity but 16 gigawatts, a total for new building that is bigger than all our current nuclear capacity and represents significant progress toward a low-carbon future," Brown said in a speech at the Confederation of British Industry annual conference.

He also stressed the need to invest in carbon capture and storage.

Earlier this month the U.K. government set out plans for a significant expansion of nuclear power over the next 15 years following the publication of its National Policy statements on energy and related infrastructure.

In one of six statements on energy and related infrastructure, the government gave its plans to triple nuclear power-generating capacity in the U.K. to about 40% by 2025 from 13% now.

In a report published last month, the CBI said that the U.K. needs at least six new nuclear power plants by 2030--to meet climate change targets and reduce dependence on energy imports--and needs 16 GW of new nuclear power, or 10 to 12 new reactors, to move to a low-carbon model.

Electricite de France SA (EDF.FR) is leading the expansion of the U.K. 's nuclear power industry and plans to have the first of four new nuclear power plants in the U.K. operational in 2017. German utilities E.ON AG (EOAN.XE) and RWE AG (RWE.XE) have teamed up to build 6 GW by 2025, and a consortium comprising Iberdrola SA (IBE.MC), GDF Suez SA (GSZ.FR) and Scottish and Southern Energy PLC (SSE.LN) plans up to 3.6 GW.

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