MONEY FOR ATOMS
ONLY three days after the contracts had been placed for the world's first three full-scale nuclear power stations, the Minister of Fuel and Power warned the country of the 'sacri- fices' which the tremendous investment required by the nuclear power programme will impose. This was well said. Too little attention has been paid to the chance that the power programme may be held up by lack of finance. All the other possible hindrances have been much discussed. In the Commons on Monday, for instance, the House was debating the Electricity Bill, which reorganises the Central Electricity Authority so that it will be better fitted to undertake the responsibility for building the nuclear power stations. Attention has been drawn to the serious shortages which will exist of scientists and technologists. There is still some doubt whether there will be enough industrial capacity to build the power stations we want. A great deal has been said about the technical obstacles to rapid development of nuclear power and particularly about the lack of a feW scarce raw materials. Serious as some of these problems are, the possible shortage of finance is no less real. The original programme, published in the 1955 White Paper, suggested that £300 million would be needed in the first ten years. Everyone now knows that the programme has been revised and the only question is whether the original size has been trebled or quadrupled. This will be settled when the Government makes a statement early in the New Year. It seems likely, however, that the cost will be at least £800 million before 1965. This prodigious demand comes on top of ambitious plans for modernising the railways, the roads and much of manufacturing industry, which are already straining the finan- cial system. If the nuclear power programme is to push ahead without trouble, our entire taxation policy must be changed so that the formation of capital is encouraged rather than penalised. Meanwhile, the civil engineering firms from each of the three industrial groups are getting ready to clear the sites at Hunterston, Berkeley, and Bradwell. By 1961, having spa over £100 million on them, we shall be producing nearly 900 megawatts of electricity without burning a piece of coal—a saving of just under four million tons of coal a year, or one tenth of our present consumption in power stations.
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