British Energy privatization

Taylor, S. (2007) Privatization and Financial Collapse in the Nuclear Industry The Origins and Causes of the British Energy Crisis of2002, London Routledge. 

After an initial failed attempt to privatize nuclear power with the rest of the British electricity industry in 1990, the government put the nuclear stations into two state-owned companies. Nuclear Electric for the English and Welsh stations, and Scottish Nuclear for the Scottish stations. In 1995 the more modern advanced gas cooled reactor (AGR) stations plus the new pressurized water reactor (PWR) at Sizewell were privatized in the form of a new company, British Energy pic. The older Magnox reactors were retained in a company called Magnox Electric. 

Our initial round of interviews in the U.K. nuclear power industry was conducted in July 1999 with the British nuclear safety authorities— the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (Nil)— and the private nuclear generating company in England (British Energy). A second round of interviews was conducted in January 2000 to follow up on open issues. Additional background information was obtained from discussions with trade union representatives and a local U.K. trade press correspondent. The U.K. interviewees were given considerable latitude to describe the process and impacts of industry restructuring in their own terms, in part because a sensitive audit was still pre-decisional at the time of the interviews. 

The results of HMG s nuclear review were reported in a 1995 White Paper (U.K. Department of Trade and Industry, 1995). That document proposed an initial three-phase plan to (1) restructure the nuclear industry (2) privatize the more modem (AGR and PWR) nuclear power stations within British Energy and (3) keep the older Magnox reactors in the public (government-owned) sector for eventual transferal to BNFL ownership. Within the phase one restructuring, the following three stages were envisioned ... 

Since privatization, the Nil has conducted three significant audits that shed light on the impacts of restructuring on nuclear safety management. The first two of these are discussed below. The third major safety audit, of British Energy, is discussed in more detail in the next section. 

Unfortunately, British Energy found it difficult to accurately predict the future corporate organizational and employee workloads in an uncertain electricity market amid rapid organizational change on many fronts. For example, some workloads actually increased instead of declining, as a result of the extra tasks associated with the transition to a new privatized organization. Furthermore, the PSR safety work had not declined as expected. The net result was that British Energy s expected reductions in workload did not materialize as quickly as had been expected. 

One of the British Energy representatives indicated that the main concerns of the Nil related to downsizing of the centralized support (engineering) functions. He stated that at the nuclear stations themselves, staffing levels and personnel qualifications had remained essentially the same as before privatization. 

After privatisation of the electrical industry, the AGRs became part of the Nuclear Energy company, which was still pubhcly owned. In 1996, they became part of a private company, British Energy. In 2009, British Energy was acquired by Electricit6 de Erance (EDE), and in 2010, changed its name to EDF Energy. 

The main nationalized industries are represented by the British Airports Authority, British Airways, the National Bus Company, British Coal, the electricity generating and supply boards (central and regional), the Post Office, British Rail, British Shipbuilders and British Steel. They employ about 6 per cent of all British employees. British Aerospace, the National Freight Corporation, Britoil, British Telecom, Associated British Ports and parts of British Rail are among the units formerly in the public sector which have been privatized since 1979. Steps have been taken to encourage competition in energy... 

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