Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Energy Secretary Ed Miliband will today set out plans for new nuclear power plants, alongside an overhaul of planning rules to allow them to be built more quickly.

“We’re making the decision in a timely way,” Miliband told BBC Radio 4. “The lights aren’t going to go out. We do have security of supply in this country but as we need to move to a low carbon alternative we need to go down the nuclear route.”

The plans will open the way for companies such as E.ON AG, RWE Npower Plc and EDF SA to build new power plants within a decade. Previous planning laws had allowed opponents of nuclear power to delay plants for years, Miliband said.

A quarter of U.K. generation capacity will go off line by 2015, and Prime Minister Gordon Brown has argued for nuclear power to fill the shortfall to help meet targets for cutting carbon emissions and secure energy supplies. Nuclear power currently accounts for about a fifth of electricity output.

Environmental campaigners say nuclear power is unsafe and want the government to invest more in renewable energy such as wind, wave power that accounts for less than 5 percent of electricity supply.

Miliband’s statement to Parliament, likely to come around 3.30 p.m. London time, will also include details of “clean coal” programs.

To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Hutton in London at rhutton1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 9, 2009 04:39 EST