The energy blueprint has angered environmentalists seeking to promote renewable power sources such as sun, wind and waves.
Prime Minister Tony Blair says Britain can go green by embracing nuclear power.
He argues the UK can make major cuts in pollutant emissions of the blamed for climate change if it moves includes nuclear power plants in energy plans the next three to four decades.
"The challenges are so great that we cannot afford to rule out any low-carbon energy source that could help," Trade Secretary Alistair Darling said.
Environmentalists quickly slammed Blair for backing new plants despite safety issues and concerns about toxic waste disposal.
They stressed that Britain lagged behind other European nations in developing renewable energy sources such as solar or tidal power.
Germany, the world's largest producer of wind power, will shut down all its nuclear plants by about 2021.
"Nuclear power is unsafe, uneconomic and unnecessary," said Tony Juniper, the British director of Friends of the Earth.
"We can meet very demanding carbon dioxide reduction targets and we can do it quickly without nuclear," Mr Juniper said.
Mr Blair also argues that Britain needs nuclear power to meet rising demand and to reduce dependence on imports from the Middle
East, Central Asia and Russia, particularly since its own North
Sea oil reserves are diminishing.
Moscow particularly unnerved many European nations earlier this year when it unilaterally shut off supplies to Ukraine.
"What's changed my thinking is not just climate change, but the fact that we're going to move from being self-sufficient in basic energy to a big importer," Mr Blair said.
"It's not a question of either/or (nuclear power or renewables). It's everything that's got to be done to make a difference."
Mr Darling said the government would lay the legal groundwork now for the construction of new nuclear stations to replace ageing ones that are scheduled to be decommissioned.
It will hold consultations on proposals for streamlining applications for permission to build new plants, changes that will be set out in another report at the end of the year, he said.
Britain's 23 nuclear power stations supply about 20 per cent of the country's electricity. All but one is due to be closed down by 2023.