ABSTRACT
The clearest failure in the government's privatization of the electricity supply industry was the abandonment in 1989 of the attempt to privatize nuclear power. Government had sponsored and nurtured nuclear technology since its early development in the 1950s, and all Governments in the UK have been strong supporters of the nuclear industry. When plans to privatize the ESI were developed after 1987, the Government also became committed to a competitive structure for the new private ESI. Early on in the privatization process, commentators began to suggest that nuclear power would not be capable of privatization in the competitive environment proposed.1 Government however - apparently unaware of the unfavourable and highly risky economic status of British nuclear power - persistently tried to squeeze the nuclear industry into the new ESI structure.
