Alternative Sources of Energy

HC Deb 12 December 1988 vol 143 c483W

Mr. Wray

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy, further to his answer to the hon. Member for Glasgow, Provan,Official Report, 28 November, column 125, if he will urgently make it his policy to allocate the same amount of funds for research on alternative sources of energy, as is allocated for research on nuclear energy.

Mr. Michael Spicer

No. There is an inherent difference in scale, and hence in costs, between the R & D needed to achieve results in the different sectors. Nuclear R & D is at the development stage, which is also inherently more expensive than the research stage, at which much of the non-nuclear work is being done at present. The Government look at each research area and programme on its own merits, in the light of advice from ACORD, and allocate resources accordingly, rather than try to seek a spurious balance between them.