UK nuclear going down the pan? Readers will have seen the news that Rolls Royce is trying to get rid of the main bulk of its civil UK nuclear business though not Small Modular Reactors, nuclear submarines and Hinkley Point C involvement. It has appointed the consultancy firm KPMG to find a buyer. This follows the earlier revelation that EdF Energy has been doing the same for at least a year, ie trying to find a buyer for its ageing UK reactor fleet. It is unlikely either company will find a buyer, or at least find one willing to pay a reasonable price . For example, UK energy giant Centrica[4] has been trying for years to offload its 20% shareholding of EDF Energy. Back in 2012, after it pulled out of the mooted Hinkley Point C development (thereby losing £200 million in sunk costs), Centrica appointed the German investment bank UBS to look for a suitable buyer but none has ever been found. The main reason these companies are trying to offload their nuclear reactor businesses is that they are essentially unprofitable: the electricity they produce is more expensive than the sales they generate. And their fuel costs are far more expensive than the effectively zero fuel costs of electricity from wind and solar.
Ian Fairlie 11th Marcvh 2019 read more »
Schellenberger: It Sounds Crazy, But Fukushima, Chernobyl, And Three Mile Island Show Why Nuclear Is Inherently Safe.
Forbes 11th March 2019 read more »
Despite the ever-increasing number of voices calling for nuclear as a catch-all solution to climate change, however, there are still a lot of drawbacks to nuclear power to consider as well. Building new nuclear plants is extremely expensive, nuclear accidents–while very, very rare–are both expensive and difficult to remediate, and there is still a lot of public mistrust and political adversity when it comes to nuclear. As much as we would all love to have a silver bullet solution for climate change, and as much promise as nuclear energy holds, no single solution is so simple.
Oil Price 11th March 2019 read more »
