Professor Sir David King, Number 10's Chief Scientific Advisor, gave the Government five years to decide the future of nuclear energy, at a Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) conference, on 29 September.

Sir David reiterated his environmental and security of supply concerns, supporting a diverse energy mix to bridge the gap from phasing out nuclear and insufficient energy from other carbon free technologies. The Energy White Paper seeks to review the nuclear power option in the future; King cautions, "�the timescale to do that is relatively short. I do think 5 years or less is when we've got to make a decision."

Sir David reinforced his support for low CO2 emitting energy sources at a Greenpeace lecture on 12 October. The scientist first called for more nuclear energy to help combat global climate change in 2002.