To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry pursuant to paragraph 5.134 of the Energy Review, Cm 6887, whether the Environment Agency will be able to recover (a) in full and (b) in part from any company putting forward proposals to build new nuclear plants the costs of the pre-licensing work. (86082)

Paragraph 5.9 of the Environment Agency submission to the Energy Review stated that:

“We will need to recover the costs associated with pre-authorisation/licensing assessments. There are legal provisions in the EA 95 to enable our costs to be recovered.”

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether it is his policy to replace those nuclear stations that he identifies in the Energy Review as coming to the end of their operational lives. (86114)

Any new power stations would be proposed, developed, constructed and operated by the private sector. It is for the private sector to make judgements on the future relative costs of different generating technologies, within the market framework established by Government. Developers will make their proposals for new generating capacity based on these judgments.

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what estimate his Department has made of the level of government subsidies likely to be required to stimulate the commissioning of new nuclear generating stations by energy companies. (85568)

It will be for the private sector to initiate, fund, construct and operate any new nuclear power station, and also meet full decommissioning costs and their full share of long term waste management costs.