Under pressure from Brexit and the declining costs of renewable energy, Britain’s nuclear industry is increasingly relying on supportive government policy to plough on with high-profile — and controversial — projects. With four big projects due for completion by 2025, the country is at the forefront of a global industry left shaken by the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima nuclear site in Japan. “The UK is the best place in the world to build nuclear” as the sector does not face the political opposition found elsewhere, David Powell, Hitachi’s Europe vice-president for nuclear power plant sales, told AFP on the sidelines of a conference in London this month. Britain’s Conservative government has made the decommissioning of the country’s coal-fired power stations and ageing nuclear reactors — many of which were built in the 1950s — a pillar of its energy security policy and low-carbon commitments. Only one of Britain’s 15 existing reactors is expected to be in use by 2030. But British anti-nuclear campaigners have denounced the government’s steadfast commitment to nuclear power, urging it to focus instead on renewable sources like wind and solar. “The contrast between the nuclear industry and the renewables industry could not be starker,” said Doug Parr, policy director at Greenpeace UK. “Offshore wind, in particular, is dramatically falling in cost and rapidly improving in technology,” he said. “It is clear that new nuclear will only be built with substantial government support not required by renewable energy technologies like wind and solar.”
France24 20th Sept 2017 read more »
Letter Sue Roaf: Nine UK plants are assessed by Defra as currently vulnerable to coastal flooding, including all eight proposed new UK nuclear sites and numerous radioactive waste stores, operating reactors and defunct nuclear facilities. EDF claims on its website that “to protect the Hinkley Point C station from such events, the platform level of the site is set at 14 metres above sea level, behind a sea wall with a crest level of 13.5 metres”. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 produced a maximum storm surge of 8.5 metres. It is predicted that sea levels may rise by a metre by 2100. The UK government cannot actually have believed in climate change or surely they would not put future generations at such risk? I bet they believe in it now. The question is: do they care? Is it really too late to stop a retrograde, potentially catastrophic and already unaffordable UK nuclear future?
Guardian 20th Sept 2017 read more »
Letter David Bridgwater: I accept David Lowry’s critique that nuclear power generation is not uninterrupted or carbon-free, and the need for back-up generating capacity. Gas cannot be the long-term, or even mid-term, solution, however. I am surprised that no mention is made of nuclear fusion as a long-term alternative to fission. A technology of profound challenges, nonetheless it is being actively researched around the world, with China allegedly investing billions in an attempt to lead the world in this.
Guardian 20th Sept 2017 read more »
