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"Energy Secretary Chris Huhne has denied allegations that his "prejudices" against nuclear energy contributed to the cancellation of the £80 million loan to Sheffield Forgemasters to build power plant components. Labour leadership contender Ed Miliband said the coalition's decision was based on the "short-sightedness" of a Tory party which was against state intervention and Mr Huhne's opposition to nuclear. But at Commons question time Mr Huhne said the decision was made because the loan was "simply unaffordable". Shadow energy secretary Mr Miliband said the "commercial loan" to Forgemasters would have resulted in at least £110 million returning to the Exchequer. Mr Huhne told him: "The loan to Sheffield Forgemasters was not a commercial loan. If it was a commercial loan it would have been arranged through the banks and not by the Government."

"Britain's lights will stay on even without new nuclear power plants replacing the ageing reactors which are set to close in the next few years, energy secretary Chris Huhne said on Thursday. UK Reiterating that the government will not block new nuclear builds, Huhne said that nuclear's contribution to power generation could fall below the current 20 percent level with no risk of an energy gap if there was sufficient investment in other sources. "If we set the right framework for low carbon generation, then the market will deliver enough with the right mix. If that includes nuclear, that's envisaged in the coalition agreement, then that will be up to investors," Huhne added at the sidelines of the UK Energy Summit conference."

Energy secretary blames predecessors for avoiding tough decisions in 'classic example of short-termism' Britain is facing a £4bn black hole in unavoidable nuclear decommissioning and waste costs, Chris Huhne, the energy and climate change secretary disclosed tonight. The decommissioning costs over the next four years revealed by officials to Huhne are so serious that he has already flagged the crisis up to the cabinet. The revelation places an unexpected burden on his department's £3bn annual budget ahead of difficult spending negotiations this summer."

"Centrica and E.ON lobby Liberal Democrat energy secretary to commit government to £30bn nuclear newbuild programme Leaders of the nuclear industry have sought urgent meetings with the new energy secretary, Chris Huhne, amid concern that he will not provide the support needed for their £30bn investment programme in a new generation of reactors. Sam Laidlaw, Centrica's chief executive, and Paul Golby, head of E.ON UK, have scheduled talks in the coming days with Huhne, who has strongly indicated that his primary focus is renewable power."

"Energy and climate change secretary "will take pragmatic approach" to new power stations, says EDF's Vincent de Rivaz Vincent de Rivaz: 'The commitments from the coalition government envisage a proper role for nuclear.' Photograph: Eamonn McCabe EDF Energy will announce today that it has received sufficient reassurances from the energy and climate change secretary, Liberal Democrat Chris Huhne, to continue planning for a new generation of nuclear plants in Britain. There were fears that the Lib Dems' manifesto commitment to halt the construction of any more nuclear reactors, and recent sceptical signals from Huhne, could derail its £20bn building programme. But Vincent de Rivaz, the chief executive of EDF in Britain, will tell a conference he is convinced that both sides are committed to the same goal: new reactors without subsidies and at a viable cost."

"New nuclear power plants will be built in the U.K. if utilities pay for them, said Chris Huhne, who was named yesterday as climate change secretary in a coalition government divided on the merits of atomic reactors. Companies including E.ON AG, Electricite de France SA and Centrica Plc want to replace aging reactors in the U.K. as pressure grows to reduce emissions from fossil fuels. Huhne's Liberal Democrats opposed atomic power while the Conservatives, their coalition partner, supported it. The parties yesterday said the Liberals will abstain on nuclear votes. "If they come up with a plan which genuinely involves no public subsidy, and that's the agreement of the coalition, then they'll put it through the new national planning process, and the proposal will go forward," Huhne said in an interview on British Broadcasting Corp. radio's "Today" program. "We're committed in the Liberal Democrats to not vote against it." "

"A prominent Liberal Democrat has called for Chris Huhne to resign immediately as energy and climate change secretary after emails were released detailing his officials' efforts to co-ordinate a PR response to the Fukushima disaster with the nuclear industry. Civil servants in the energy and business departments were apparently trying to minimise the impact of the disaster on public support for nuclear power. Andy Myles, the party's former chief executive in Scotland, said: "This deliberate and (sadly) very effective attempt to 'calm' the reporting of the true story of Fukushima is a terrible betrayal of liberal values. In my view it is not acceptable that a Liberal Democrat cabinet minister presides over a department deeply involved in a blatant conspiracy designed to manipulate the truth in order to protect corporate interests". The leader of the Lib Dems in the European parliament, Fiona Hall, said nuclear plans should be put on hold."

"The nuclear industry is being offered what campaigners claim is a taxpayer subsidy on the disposal costs of waste from new reactors following a secret lobbying campaign, the Guardian has learned. The revelation will put further scrutiny on the new government's promise that there will be no subsidy for nuclear power. Liberal Democrat Chris Huhne, the new energy and climate change secretary of state, admitted to the Guardian this week that the government already faces a £4bn funding black hole over existing radioactive waste."

"One accusation frequently levelled at the Labour administration by the Conservatives was that ministers were moving so slowly on developing energy policy that Britain could see the lights go out. In that context, the decision to give energy policy to one of the five Liberal Democrats offered a cabinet seat looks a curious one. There is much on which Chris Huhne and his new Conservative colleagues will agree - the need for a green investment bank, for example, and the refusal to countenance the building of a third runway at Heathrow. On one issue, however, the LibDems and the Tories remain poles apart: the role of nuclear power in the generation of Britain. "

"The Liberal Democrats agreed to drop their opposition to a new generation of nuclear power stations in one of many "unpleasant" compromises needed to secure a power-sharing deal with the Conservatives, the new energy minister said on Thursday. UK Chris Huhne, a Liberal Democrat who has described nuclear power as a "failed technology," said it was worth sacrificing one of his party's key election pledges to bolster Britain's first coalition since 1945. The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats agreed to share power on Wednesday after the ruling Labour Party failed to win a fourth term in office at an inconclusive election last week. Under their agreement, the Liberal Democrats agreed not to vote against Conservative proposals to build new nuclear power stations to replace the current ageing plants."

"The Liberal Democrats have thrown overboard one of their most distinctive election pledges and will not stand in the way of a new generation of nuclear power stations, the new energy minister, Chris Huhne, made clear today. The Lib Dem MP, who had previously described atomic power as a "failed technology", said the new coalition government with the Conservatives believed a new construction programme could go ahead as long as it was done without financial support from the state."