Cameron Surrenders To France

[jake-the-peg]

So after the Government's inability to reach an agreement with EDF over building a nuclear power station because they couldn't agree on a price for the electricity now it's all agreed.

And the price is double todays price per MW

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24604218

Apparently the great victory is that for the first time a nuclear powerstation is not being funded by the Government!

I wonder how many of these could be built by British firms for the cost of HS2 - any ideas?

More to the point - who's paying for the decomissioning?

[hawksley]

Why do the French, want to invest in the UK? Because they know that the British public are cash cows , and they will keep on rising the price of power for greedy profits. The French would not stand for it ,there would be riots and strikes in France , but the good old Brits will stand for it.

[emmie]

the British firms all turned the deal down, at least that is what the news reporter said last night.

[emmie]

EDF have long been here, or didn't you realise that.

[emmie]

for those who don't know

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EDF_Energy

[bazwillrun]

" Because they know that the British public are cash cows , and they will keep on rising the price of power for greedy profits. "

and how

I recall a few years ago when EDF "transferred" a few hundred million £ of debt to the UK side of the operation and that debt was used as justification/reason for increasing UK prices

[emmie]

are you suggesting that the other EDF customers, European nations utility bills are less, anyone know?

[bazwillrun]

all i'm saying is that EDF needed to offset some debt and used the UK knowing they could get away with it, which they did, prices went up by double figures at the time and from what i remember they wanted to put up French prices by 3 or 4% and the French went the proverbial Le/La Ballistic , the UK price hikes paid off the EDF debts at that time

[mikey4444]

Just upstream of this new nuclear power plant is the new Severn Bridge. This was built by a French consortium, because the government of the time, couldn't or wouldn't build it themselves. It now costs £6:20 to cross over this section of our Motorway system, and will remain in foreign hands for a few more years yet.

Why can't we build these things ourselves, instead of selling off our national heritage and putting ourselves into hock to foreign governments ?

[emmie]

because as i have already pointed out the British firms have turned it down, perhaps it was too expensive for their pockets.

[Old_Geezer]

Not being funded by the government is an epic fail not a great victory. Anyway, too little too late springs to mind.

Since the government is not funding it then surely the decommissioning has to be down to the owners who are ?

[emmie]

not been built yet why talk of decommissioning, or are you referring to
the old ones?

[mikey4444]

I don't pretend to be an expert on nuclear power stations emmie, but when a new one is built, there is no alternative but to look into the future and take decommissioning into account as well. With coal fired power stations, you just send a few bulldozers in and knock them down, then build another shopping Mall on top. This isn't an option with nuclear jobbies.

[emmie]

i agree, however it hasn't been built yet, what about the current crop of nuclear plants, some are coming to the end of their lives?

[emmie]

one assumes they didn't just decide how they should be decommissioned, however there must be a plan for any coal fired plant, as well as nuclear plants..

[jno]

the cost of decommissioning Britain's current nuclear plants is somewhere up towards £100 billion.

http://www.newstatesman.com/business/2013/09/cost-decommissioning-nuclear-power-station

So it would be nice to know if I'm going to have to pay for it.

[youngmafbog]

yes, it is a terrible price to pay for the failure of the last Government to act on the looming energy crisis.

Perhaps if New Labour had pulled their finger out we may have had more options?

We are running out of choices if you dont want the lights to be out in a decade. And that is not idle scaremongering it is now a very real problem.

Renewables, at present, are simply not up to the job and we have slit our own throats by signing up to a carbon reduction that will cost us all dearly whilst the likes of China an India stick two fingers up to it and continue piling our noxious gases.

Nice one, right-on liberal and greenies.

[youngmafbog]

jno, yes you will have to pay for it. Unless you are feckless or from foreign shores there is no such thing as a free lunch.

[jake-the-peg]

//there is no alternative but to look into the future and take decommissioning into account as well.//

Herein lies the rub
In 2008 the law was changed to compel any nuclear power station bids to pay for decomissioning.

In 2011 this law was changed

//Amendments to the Energy Act 2008 are required to ensure that there is an appropriate balance between the Secretary of State's powers to protect the taxpayer by modifying an Operator's Funded Decommissioning Programme (which is a legal requirement on the Operator) and the Operator's need for clarity over how those powers will be exercised//

And now oh look there's an agreement for a new nuclear power station

Call me cynical - but I'm hugely suspicious over this

[jake-the-peg]

So YMB

By 'if the last government had pulled their finger out'

You mean - 'lowered the bar on who is paying for the clean up'?

[emmie]

indeed this matter should have been looked at and acted on decisively years ago, they are all guilty of shilly shallying over energy, and by the way how much subsidy is there on wind farms, also it's been the green lobby that has caused many problems over nuclear energy, how much more does it cost on your electricity bill because of the hidden green agenda costs, will have to find a Guardian piece on that, if its the mail no one will believe it.