Nuclear Power in Britain: A series of successful failures

Britain’s efforts to promote nuclear power represent successful failures. A successful failure is a policy program that achieves some progress or delivers short-term success but ultimately fails to deliver upon its original objectives. Britain’s various nuclear power programs did deliver some limite...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational review of public policy Vol. 5; no. 1; pp. 26 - 43
Main Author Baker, Keith
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published International Review of Public Policy 01.04.2023
OpenEdition
Subjects
case study
implementation
nuclear power
policy failure
successful failure
policy failure
successful failure
case study
implementation
nuclear power
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Britain’s efforts to promote nuclear power represent successful failures. A successful failure is a policy program that achieves some progress or delivers short-term success but ultimately fails to deliver upon its original objectives. Britain’s various nuclear power programs did deliver some limited success but often fell short of key objectives overall and incurred massive cost overruns. It is shown that government interventions often prevented outright failure, but these interventions were made necessary due to the unintended consequences of prior decisions. It is concluded that government creates the conditions that increase the risk of policy failure but through intervention, government can forestall outright failure to create a successful failure.
ISSN:2679-3873
2706-6274
DOI:10.4000/irpp.3206