Vincent de Rivaz, chief executive of EDF Energy, told MPs that new nuclear power stations should be built to help to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, increase security of supply and lower energy price volatility.

Giving evidence to the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee, he said that potential investors in nuclear stations were being deterred because of the absence of a long-term energy policy.

Asked what incentives EDF Energy would need, M de Rivaz said: “What I say is that risks need to be mitigated for the investor. These risks, as I said, are licensing, planning and a safety authority.”

EDF, which supplies gas and electricity to five million households, said that the total cost to build new nuclear stations would be lower if more than one station was built.

Separately, a spokesman for Mitsui Babcock, the international developer of power stations, told the All-Party Parliamentary Coalfield Communities Committee that clean coal technology could help Britain to meet its climate change targets, at a fraction of the cost of renewables. A spokesman for the company said that utilities were not investing in new generation plant at present because of the uncertainty over how the European Emissions Trading Scheme would work between 2008 and 2012.

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