Let’s have the good news first…

Government lawyers have warned ministers that legal challenges could delay its plan for the construction of nuclear power stations and exacerbate potential energy shortages.

(It’s a shame the article says legal challenges could ‘exacerbate potential energy shortages’ when independent research shows that if the UK meets energy efficiency and renewable energy targets – as described in Greenpeace’s Energy Revolution - an ‘energy gap’ can be avoided without the need for nuclear power.)

The news came to light after legal documents were leaked and follows Greenpeace the flawed nuclear consultation conducted by the UK government…

The Market Research Standards Board agreed with Greenpeace that consultation for the 2008 energy white paper had not been conducted in an even-handed way.

(Greenpeace UK have more details and a copy of the document.)

Unfortunately this good news was followed quickly by some bad…

Ed Miliband, the energy and climate change secretary, is to exempt from the Freedom of Information Act the new US-led private consortia taking over the running of Britain's biggest nuclear facility at Sellafield next Monday.

There aren’t many details to this story yet but it prompts some rather large questions: Why is the company running Sellafield being made immune to Freedom of Information requests? How cover-up and secrecy like this build public confidence in the nuclear industry? What does it have to hide? Surely if everything is fine there would be no need for secrecy. It prompts a serious worry that something is wrong at Sellafield or something about the deal to run the facility stinks. Which is it?