IT is good news that EDF has extended the life of Hartlepool Nuclear Power Station from 2024 to 2026, as we report here, but Britain must implement an energy generation strategy that will meet the country’s needs in the decades to come so that we do not rely on patching up old plants just to get us through the next winter.

The Hartlepool station started generating in 1983 when it was due to close in 2014, but its life has now been extended by more than a decade. With its sister station, Heysham 1 near Morecambe, it generates five per cent of UK power and, unlike renewables, it does so consistently.

But it is clearly nearing the end of its life. Indeed, all four of our Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors are due to close by 2028 leaving only Sizewell B generating.

To get us through this winter, five elderly coal-fired plants have been restarted. If we are this short today, what state are we going to be in when our nuclear plants have faded away?

Environmentalists don’t like nuclear, understandably because of its toxic legacy, but it is cleaner than the coal-fired plants we are currently using.

It seems that very soon – perhaps even next week’s Budget – the Government will redefine nuclear as “green” in a desperate attempt to kickstart investment into the sector as part of its Great British Nuclear initiative.

Because nuclear is so expensive – Hinkley Point C, the one new plant we are building, is going to cost at least £32bn – for decades we have shied away from committing to it, and now the situation in Ukraine has revealed how vulnerable we have left ourselves.

Hopefully, Great British Nuclear will change that – although the vacillations over HS2 show how poor this country is in committing to big picture, big cost infrastructure projects. Future generations will not thank us for that.