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ShadesWolf
07-12-2006, 20:19
You will all be pleased to hear that due to my change of job I now buy the Daily Mail everyday. Where I now work I arrive approx 45 minutes early due to the travelling, so I need something to do and as they wont pay me overtime (YET) I dont see why I should start work.

so what better than to start the day off with reading my fav newspaper.

I find this an interesting article, maybe if Labour hadnt stuck its head in the sand 10 years ago we might well have been on the way to seeing these actual up and running quite soon.

I also seem to recall that I created a thread on this a little while back.

Anyway enjoy.......



Labour plans six nuclear plants
By TIM SHIPMAN, Daily Mail
09:29am 10th July 2006

Six new nuclear power stations and a fivefold increase in electricity from wind, solar and tidal sources will be key planks of an Energy Review unveiled by the Government tomorrow.

Labour will also order a crackdown on power usage at home - with manufacturers told to phase out the standby buttons on TVs and stereos which cost £740million a year in wasted electricity.

Fridges, washing machines and cookers that are not energy efficient may no longer be sold.

Another key proposal will be to build a 10mile-wide tidal barrier across the River Severn, costing £15billion. It could produce as much energy as three nuclear power plants over the next 200 years by funnelling water through 200 turbines.

The plan will form the centrepiece of the Government's pledge to increase the amount of energy produced from renewable sources from four per cent to 20 per cent, which it hopes will placate opponents of nuclear power.

In a reversal of Labour's last energy review in 2003, the 120-page document concludes nuclear power is now a key component of electricity generation.

A leaked draft says: 'Based on a range of possible scenarios, the economics of nuclear now look more positive.'

It adds: 'Government considers that nuclear should have a role to play in the future of the UK generating mix, alongside other low carbon-generating options.'

The review will rule out subsidies for nuclear power and say market forces will determine the stations. But Whitehall sources say planning law will be simplified to make it easier to build them.

The review says Britain must plug a 30 per cent shortfall in energy needs caused by the impending closure of coal, gas and nuclear power plants.

A former Government adviser denounced the review as a 'sham'. Stephen Hale, who was special adviser to Margaret Beckett when she was Environment Secretary, said Mr Blair 'refused to consider the alternatives' to nuclear energy.

A survey of more than 1,000 adults suggests it will be a struggle to win the public over to nuclear power. Only 16 per cent call it 'very safe', the GMTV poll found and almost three-quarters would be worried if a nuclear plant was built near them.

Templar Knight
07-12-2006, 21:03
British Energy have just bought some land from an estate near me in preparation to build a new plant, which means that there will be 3 massive nuclear plants side by side just a few miles from me. The first one dates from the 60's and is being decommissioned right now and will be encased in concrete for the next 100 years. The second one dates from the late 70's and should have closed 4 years ago. There is continuous radiation scares in the area with local farms and houses being given iodine tables at least once a year.

The later plant apparently nearly suffered a Chernobyl 'meltdown’, in 1998 when after a series of storms shut off the cooling system:


A full-scale emergency was declared at a Scots nuclear station when fierce winds knocked out the power to cool its reactors. The plant remained shut after bosses pressed the alarm button. They couldn't restart the back-up generators, vital to keep the reactors' two cores from overheating. Frightened staff were called from their homes and battled for five hours to manually try to reset the safety systems before the cores went "critical". A boss was also rushed under police escort to Hunterston B, in Ayrshire, it was claimed. The astonishing situation - sparking fears of a Chernobyl-type reactor meltdown - happened after storms took out the national grid twice in the space of 12 hours. The first time - at 11pm on Saturday - the emergency back-up generators in the nuclear plant switched on automatically. But there were not enough staff on duty to manually reset them before the grid went down a second time at 11am on Sunday - leaving plant bosses helpless.

You can read about the other incidents here: http://www.banthebomb.org/archives/scotland/hunacc.shtml

Templar Knight
07-12-2006, 21:04
Double Post

Duke Malcolm
07-12-2006, 21:06
After all this harking on about renewables and the great green plains of turbines we have, I wonder if the Rt Hon. Jack McConnell, First Minister of Scotland and Keeper of the Great Seal, will bow to Blair's command and let some nuclear power stations be built...