Questioning the UK state capacity to govern controversial technologies such as nuclear power

This paper focusses on recent UK nuclear power policies in an attempt to test and question the widespread theories over a possible “hollowing out” of the state as a result of the recent changes in governance structure and dynamics that occurred in the British electricity sector over the 1990s. Our purpose is to defend the idea that the UK state remains a dominant player in UK energy policies, having shown strong adaptability to the challenges raised by the rapidly changing energy context, without necessarily returning to a traditional “command and control” approach to policy-making