Is Nuclear Privatisation an option in energy policy?
After embarking on an agenda aimed at liberalization of the electricity industry, the UK government was faced with the question of whether to privatise the nuclear industry as part of the process. The purpose of this paper is to review the procedure adopted by the government in an attempt to privatise the industry, how the privatisation program progressed, the floatation of British Energy as the UK’s nuclear energy company as well as the shortcomings and problems encountered along the way in the privatisation bid. This paper will critically analyze the Government’s actions especially when the privatisation program developed problems and the Government had to step in with a financial bail-out of the industry. Finally, the current state of the UK nuclear industry will be discussed and a short conclusion will follow at the end.
