British Prime Minister Tony Blair indicated Tuesday that the country may need to rely more on nuclear power to secure future energy supplies as he took part in a live web chat. In an online "question time" with five competition winners, Blair was grilled in his Downing Street office in London about Africa, the environment, climate change and energy supplies.
He restated his view that Britain may need to continue to rely on nuclear power in addition to renewable sources of energy such as wind and water power.
"I have a feeling it is possible we may need both. We are undertaking a review now of what the energy needs are going to be but it's possible… that we may actually need more than the renewables," he said.
"You can't be quite sure about this at the moment but looking forward, for reasons of energy security as much as for reasons of climate change, I think there is going to be a huge need to develop all of this and incidentally clean coal technology as well."
Blair, who is widely believed to be in favour of reviving Britain's nuclear power programme, ordered a review into the country's future energy supplies late last year.
He said at the time that urgent action was needed because of rising energy prices, dwindling North Sea gas and oil supplies and to counter the effects of climate change.
Britain currently has about a dozen nuclear power stations, most of them built in the 1960s and 1970s, providing about 25 percent of the country's electricity. Natural gas provides about 40 percent.
