The global route to a nuclear future

9th May 2008
By Malcolm Grimston

Nuclear energy grew up in the command-and-control environment of world energy policy in the 1960s and 1970s. Decisions on plant mix were taken by government (or their proxies, the heavily regulated electricity ‘utilities’). Costs were passed on to captive customers who were required to take their electricity from these monopolistic utilities.  Many countries developed unique national nuclear technologies — even those which bought technology from elsewhere, such as Franc…