UK approves new nuclear power plants

international | environment | other press Thursday January 10, 2008 12:18 by neighbourly

Despite the cost of building them, the delay in bringing them online, the cost of cleaning up the old ones, the cost of disposing of all the waste so far, the need to invest in carbon capture or at least print up colourful brochures for the next generation on climate change, the general un-Scottishness of a post-nuclear "chernobyl style" disaster UK (most of Scottish people & many Welsh ones too would peel & die) the government of the UK has decided to approve new nuclear power plants.

Because of the Scottish thing, their PM AlexSalmond has gone radge & insists not a single nuke will be build the Caledonian side of the border. Nobody remembers the name of the Welsh PM so all attention is on the Taoiseach to say something rousing.

UK approves new nukes

If you live in the UK this could mean cheaper lecky bills unless you're already extracting it illegally from your neighbours or have found a way to live without it & are only reading this article thanks to battery power & wifi. The illustration is of course the international symbol for ion radiation. It is a good idea not to touch anything you find with that symbol on, unless it's a young person in an ironic t-shirt, perhaps a student of semiotics - use your instincts.. The logo of course is not to be confused with the international symbol for laser radiation which you can find by looking directly inside any CD player.

2023 is the set date for the closure of most of the UK's existing nuclear power stations, but as can be seen from the chart below there is already a backlog of stations which are now past their operational safety date.

name_________megawatts___due to Close
Calder Hall_________ 194___2003
Chapelcross________196___2005
Dungeness A_______450__2006
Dungeness B______1110___2018
Hartlepool________1210___2014
Heysham 1_______1150___2014
Heysham 2_______1250___2023
Hinkley Point B____1220____2016
Hunterston B_____1190___ 2016
Oldbury _________434___2008
Sizewell A ______420 ___2006
Sizewell B ______1188 ___2035
Torness______1250___2023
Wylfa_________980___2010

Here is a good refutal of the 5 key points the UK government is using to justify the decision by Tom Burke of the Sustainable Energy Awareness & Campaign group / site E3G
http://www.e3g.org/index.php/programmes/climate-article...ence/

Here is a hearwarming interactive map from the UK "no2nuclear power" group which helps you to understand how very very unScottish simulated melt-downs would be. You'll note as well that northern Ulster get's fried too. That might be a good thing - you'd have to ask them.
http://www.no2nuclearpower.org.uk/Chernobyl-UK.php

here's something from SKY news which speaks of "Green fury" counterpointed the thoughts of a happy builder. http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30400-1300003,00...f=rss
here's something else from the Yorkshire evening post which talks of a "Green light" http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/latest-national-n...70.jp & without mentioning local builders does mention the investment opportunities which would be afforded electricty operators who wanted to get on the fry Ulster gravy train. Which is what it's all about at the end of the day. Today's decision will not mean one joule or to be precise one watt of new electricity this side of 2020 & will sooner or later mean doing some deal with Sarkozy to guarantee French contractors works. Meanwhile he'll have covered his country in windmills & closed down most of France's reactors on time & within budget. I don't know what he thinks about Scottish people - you'd have to ask him.