Reply #20: Scotland says no to UK's new generation of nuclear plants;aims for non-nuke future.

[Divernan]

Nuclear power currently generates around a sixth of the United Kingdom's electricity. As of 2011, the United Kingdom operates 19 nuclear reactors at nine locations. The country also operates a nuclear reprocessing plant at Sellafield.

The United Kingdom's first commercial nuclear power reactor began operating in 1956 and, at its peak in 1997, 26% of the nation's electricity was generated from nuclear power. Since then a number of stations have closed and the share had declined to 19.26% by 2004 and approximately 16% by 2009. The two remaining Magnox nuclear stations and two of the seven AGR nuclear stations are currently planned for accounting purposes to close by 2016. This is a cause behind the UK's forecast 'energy gap', though secondary to the reduction in coal generating capacity. However older AGR nuclear power station have been life-extended, and it is likely many of the others can be life-extended, significantly reducing the energy gap.

In October 2010 the Government of the United Kingdom gave the go-ahead for a new generation of up to 8 nuclear power stations to be built.The Scottish Government, with the backing of the Scottish Parliament, has however made it clear that Scotland will have no new nuclear power stations and is aiming instead for a non-nuclear future.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_the_United_Kingdom