Judge's ruling against Blair may delay new nuclear power plants

A JUDGE delivered an embarrassing rebuke to Tony Blair's nuclear energy policy yesterday, with a ruling that could delay the construction of a new wave of reactors.

Mr Justice Sullivan found ministers had not adequately consulted the public before announcing last year that they would license a new wave of nuclear power stations.

Last July, the Prime Minister published a government review which concluded that nuclear generation had to remain part of Britain's energy mix over the next 40 years, to cut emissions and reduce Britain's reliance on imported power.

In October, Greenpeace applied to the High Court in England for a judicial review of the government's decision-making. They argued that ministers had not honoured a pledge to consult the public about energy policy.

Ruling in favour of Greenpeace yesterday, the judge found that the energy review's consultation exercise was fundamentally flawed.

Ministers had failed properly to consult voters about either the economic implications of nuclear power or about how to dispose of future nuclear waste, he said. Information ministers had published about nuclear waste was "not merely inadequate but also misleading".

As environmental groups celebrated the ruling, the government indicated that it would not contest the judge's finding - instead, it is planning to reopen its formal consultation process on energy policy.

Alistair Darling, the Industry Secretary, insisted the ruling would not change the government's decision on nuclear power but could delay the construction of new reactors.

"The best thing to do now is to accept the judge's verdict, to learn from what went wrong, to put it right and consult properly, to make sure we can get the process back on track," Mr Darling said.