Britain was a pioneer in civil nuclear power and there were high hopes in the 1950s that this could be a source of cheap electricity and a valuable export opportunity. In The Fall and Rise of Nuclear Power in Britain, Simon Taylor looks at why these hopes were never realised, and how we have come to see a new rise in nuclear power in recent years. Throughout the book, Taylor looks at: energy policy, economics, politics and changing environmental priorities. Will this new nuclear energy turn out to be a heroic story of UK leadership on a matter of global importance, or will prove a hugely costly folly, as with British nuclear power in the past?
