So a Commons committee has spoken out on the subject of nuclear power:

Tony Blair must not give "preferential treatment" to nuclear power when
the Government unveils its long-awaited energy review this week, a
committee of MPs says today.

Quite right too with one caveat:

Today’s report from the committee makes clear that nuclear power must
not be given special favours in terms of funding or planning
regulations.

Ah, planning regulations: There will have to be special treatment there. If each and every application has to go through the entire process of determining whether nuclear is safe, with FoE and the like asking the same questions again and again, then nothing will ever happen. One enquiry to deal with the technology, to answer all of those questions once and for all, and then separate simple planning ones for each site, yes. Otherwise the whole plan will be subsumed in a sea of paper.

Other than that? No special treatment sounds good to me. This also includes no artifical barriers as well. Given that nuclear emits, in the full cycle, less CO2 than, say, solar, it clearly makes no sense that solar does not pay the Climate Change Levy but nuclear does. Similarly, why should there be a renewables obligation for certain technologies and not nuclear?

But if, given that level playing field, nuclear still can’t cut it on a commercial basis then fine, I’ve got no problem with there either being or not being a new generation of plants.