Publication Laka-library:
The end of the nuclear dream. UKAEA and its role in Nuclear Research and Development (1988)
| Author | M.Flood, FOE UK |
| Date | August 1988 |
| Classification | 6.01.0.40/45 (HISTORY / DEVELOPMENT NUCLEAR ENERGY) |
| Front | 
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From the publication:
FOREWORD The dream of cheap and abundant nuclear power for the UK has never materialised. It can now be said with absolute certainty that it never will. A fair share of the responsibility for this rests firmly with the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. Since its establishment in 1954, a series of errors of judgement about reactor design and research priorities has left the UK nuclear industry as exposed as it's ever been. By the same token, the future of the UKAEA itself looks more parlous than ever before. 'The End of the Nuclear Dream' provides a timely review of that troubled history. Critics of the industry today often pay insufficient attention to the psychology and institutional mindset of those whom they oppose; it's instructive to reconsider the 'glory days' of the '50s, when many young and idealistic scientists became so enthusiastically wrapped up in the nuclear dream, convinced that this was the answer both to the UK's security needs and its future energy supply. It is those people, now chastened and brought up hard against the reality of their limited powers, who preside over a rapidly declining industry. In the early days, the UKAEA was the nuclear industry, attracting almost unlimited (and certainly uncontrolled) funding, dealing not only with research but with reactor development, production and operation. In 1962 it employed more than 40,000 people. But even then, there were constant doubts both about its unwieldy structure and a chronic lack of direction. If there is one single factor which accounts for the differences between the disgraceful record of the British nuclear industry, and the apparent success of the industry in France, it is surely the failure of British scientist to come up with and stay faithful to the right reactor design. The litany of failure in this respect must depress even the most enthusiastic advocate of nuclear power. Of the five systems the UKAEA has worked on, just two have been put into commercial production. One of those (Magnox) is now obsolete; the other (the Advanced Gas Cooled Reactor) has been a financial disaster. And even after 30 years of intensive research and development, the Fast Breeder Reactor has got mighty little to show for itself. Advocates of renewable sources of energy will be even more depressed by the fact that it is still the UKAEA which is centrally involved in their development through its Energy Technology Support Unit. 'The End of the Nuclear Dream' makes out an absolutely compelling case for the termination of this under funded and institutionally marginal body, and the establishment of a properly resourced and supported Renewable Energy Development Agency. The rise and fall of the UKAEA has run pretty much in parallel with the level of public and political confidence in nuclear power in the UK. That is now at an all time low. But the erstwhile dreams of the industry have given rise to too many nightmares to feel anything other than relief that a new age of reality would now seem to be dawning. Jonathon Porritt July 1988
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