THE Prime Minister’s new enthusiasm for nuclear power met with hostility from environmental groups yesterday, even though it is the urgency of tackling global warming that has convinced him to reopen the issue.

While nuclear reactors do not directly emit greenhouse gases, green campaigners rejected a new generation of the plants as a viable solution to meeting Britain’s energy needs without contributing to climate change. They said the Government should instead concentrate on promoting renewable power and energy efficiency.

Nuclear energy presents something of a dilemma for environmentalists, as it is widely accepted as the most mature technology currently available for generating electricity that is carbon neutral. This has led figures such as Professor Sir David King, the Chief Scientific Adviser, who once opposed nuclear power, and Sir James Lovelock, the veteran environmental scientist, to embrace it as a necessary step if global warming is to be contained.

That view, however, is still strongly opposed by most of the large green campaign groups, who argue that the risks of saddling future generations with waste that remains radioactive for thousands of years rule out nuclear as an environmentally-friendly option.

The argument has divided Government advisers, with Professor King pressing for replacement of Britain’s existing nuclear reactors while Jonathon Porritt, chair of the Government’s Sustainable Development Commission, is more sceptical.

Mr Porritt yesterday accused Tony Blair of pushing the option of nuclear power by “illegitimate” means, ordering a review of nuclear energy as a “fig leaf” to disguise the fact that he has already made his mind up.

“It is clear that there is a very strong agenda in various forms of government to bring forward the nuclear option, since the time of the election,” he told the Commons Environmental Audit Committee, which is conducting an inquiry into nuclear power and climate change.

Mr Porritt was supported by Tony Juniper, director of Friends of the Earth, who said that Tony Blair and his advisers were exaggerating its importance in fighting climate change. “Nuclear power is not the answer to tackling climate change,” he said. “It is expensive and leaves a legacy that remains dangerous for tens of thousands of years.”

Michael Meacher, the former Environment Minister, accused Professor King of spin on the issue. He told BBC Radio Four’s The World at One: “We need nuclear like a hole in the head.”

Energy experts, however, backed the Prime Minister’s support for new nuclear plants. Professor Jim Skea, of the UK Energy Research Centre, said: “Nuclear has to be considered as a future option. Nuclear would help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and would increase diversity of supply.”

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