A new dawn for nuclear power?

basically a state-backed guaranteed minimum tariff for electricity ? of ?92.50 per megawatt hour.

Worse was to come in 1986, with the Chernobyl catastrophe. Again, this said a lot more about humanity�s irrational fear of the scintillating atom than about nuclear risks. The very worst nuclear disaster in history killed fewer than 100 people directly and will probably lead to the indirect (and unmeasurable) premature deaths of a couple of thousand more, mostly from cancer.

This was bad, but compare it to the hundreds of thousands killed by coal-fired plants, from air pollution and mining accidents, and the millions more expected to die as a result of climate change, largely brought about by burning fossil fuels. Nuclear is, of course, an almost carbon-neutral form of power generation and, wind aside (which is insanely expensive), probably the safest. Yes, there are decommissioning costs and, yes, the upfront investment is huge, but this is largely due to the fact that green concerns have set the planning bar almost unbelievably high compared to other means of generation. (This doesn�t stop campaigners trumpeting high costs as an objection.)