I have selected Dr. Tim Stone to be my senior adviser to lead the development of arrangements for the costs associated with potential new build decommissioning and waste management and make proposals to me and to the Chief Secretary of the Treasury, based on the principles set out in the Energy Review Report “The Energy Challenge”.

I am confident that Tim Stone, with his extensive background in investment and corporate banking, will play an important part in designing robust arrangements that ensure that for any new nuclear build that might come forward, the private sector meets the full decommissioning costs and their full share of long-term waste management costs

Dr. Stone is taking on this role on secondment from KPMG. The role will run for an initial period of one year from 22 January 2007.