Well, what do you know? Another news story has broken which demonstrates that the UK's nuclear industry is not the robust, well-managed machine our ministers would have us believe. The government has sneaked out a report assessing the working practices of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) which is managing the clean-up of existing power stations and waste. They were clearly hoping no one would notice as there's no doubt that many people have been caught with their pants anklewards.

Gordon Brown says the UK is at the forefront of a global 'nuclear renaissance'. But despite all the rhetoric, the real picture is grim, writes John Sauven for The Guardian's Comment is free.

Just this week Prime Minister Gordon Brown confidently assured us that the UK was at the forefront of a global "nuclear renaissance" and that within a few years we'd be home to at least eight bright, shining new reactors. We're told a week is a long time in politics, but it must seem an absolute eternity to the ever more bedraggled British nuclear industry.

Yesterday, the UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) released their annual report and, as surely as night follows day, the news is that the bill for decommissioning and cleaning up our existing nuclear plants is rising. And rising. And rising.

In fact, we could have funded two London Olympics just from the rises in the estimated costs over the past two years.

Although no one really has a precise figure (and the NDA admits it can't tell us what the final bill will be), the estimate now stands at around £73bn - about the same amount as the Apollo Moon Landings cost*.

No one will be surprised that Greenpeace is against the construction of new nuclear power stations, but what some may find unusual is one of the solutions we are proposing to meet our energy needs and reduce our CO2 emissions - industrial CHP, or combined heat and power.

We've known for quite some time that the government's preferred solution to that nagging problem of all the nuclear waste currently lying around the place is to dump it in a big hole in the ground. Nice. However, they've had trouble finding anywhere in the country which has been willing to live with this waste bubbling away beneath their feet but now they've come up with the perfect solution: bribery!

Sellafield: major ongoing problems have been hidden from the public

Yesterday, Gordon Brown felt compelled to go on the record to announce that the UK needs to not only maintain but to increase its nuclear power capacity. And yet the nuclear industry is not exactly hale and hearty because, let's face it, it's been a terrible week for the poor dears.

We've learned that the French nuclear safety agency has ordered a halt to the construction of the new EPR reactor in Flamanville, France. Only six months after work first began. The EPR is the same type of reactor that is proposed to be built in the UK.

A projection near Prague Castle says 'Non merci' to nuclear power © Horejsi/Greenpeace

Prague, that wonderful city admired by horror film makers and stag parties alike, is currently hosting the European Nuclear Energy Forum (ENEF), a gathering of those involved in shaping nuclear policy across the EU. One of the hot topics at this meeting is safety standards within the nuclear industry and a very scary proposal has been floated to lower standards in many member states.

Today is the deadline for bids to takeover British Energy, the country's beleaguered nuclear operator. Leading the pack of foreign companies hoping to get their hands on BE's nuclear sites is the French government owned Electricité de France, or EDF as they prefer to be known on this side of the Channel.

Now, EDF is hoping to bag large tranches of UK land at nuclear sites - not for BE's financial integrity or for operational performance, but to add the UK to its nuclear catalogue. Put simply, they reckon building a new reactor on British soil will pull punters into their atomic showroom.

The government says the decision on building new nuclear reactors will be entirely up to the market and utility companies will have to pay their "full share" of decommissioning and waste management costs, but Gordon Brown is going to have to cook the books like a cordon bleu chef he if wants to attract new investment.

While Brown teams up with French president Nicholas Sarkozy at Emirates stadium today to push through his dream of a new nuclear era, a government advisor is publishing a new cost analysis that suggests energy companies cannot be charged a fully commercial price for waste disposal without "killing the prospect" of a new generation of nuclear reactors.