Hinkley ~ Powered By Atoms, French, And Chinese = Dangerous Mix

[gl556tr]

Theresa May's putting a signature to the Hinkley Point on temporary -- and hopefully permanent -- hold is a welcome opportunity for UK Ltd to re-assess how it invests in technology for energy. Looking at atomic energy as a means of generating electricity raises important issues:
- (1) Hinkley will have reactors from EDF, a French government-owned company;
- (2) the reactors will use EDF technology. An EDF project in France is running years behind schedule, due to technical problems. This is also the case for an EDF reactor in Finnland;
- (3) the construction of these EDF reactors in Finnland and France have more than tripled in cost;
- (4) the much-vaunted carbon-neutrality of nuclear reactors has to be balanced by the deadly legacy of radio-active toxic waste that'll remain a threat for more than 40,000 generations of our race;
- (5) the proposed UK guarantee of >£92 for each MWh the EDF plants will produce is far higher than the £85/MWh for offshore windparks, according to Scandinavian data. Offshore wind is already 8% cheaper, undermining the economic case for Hinkley Point.
- (6) apart from there being no opportunity for UK nuclear know-how, developing it and producing a more knowledgeable home-grown employment bse, there is a greater threat in having Chinese partners involved in such a sensitive UK project: this'll open the door for them to 'peek' at our security structure. Not an altogether comforting situation. (Look how the Chinese have raised two fingers at the world's powers as they aggressively build and occupy the low-lying Spratly Islands in international waters, thereby claiming rights to surrounding fishing and other resources.)
- (7) Theresa May ought to revive the renewable energy industry. Apart from ever-cheaper wind energy, the obviously plentiful tidal energy we have will see more power being generated from this.

[Togo]

Can you imagine the furore if we had signed up for this deal with the Chinese, and this charge of spying had emerged straight afterwards. More to the point do you think that the Americans gave Mrs May the heads up on the impending charge?

[youngmafbog]

Immigration does play a major part in it as it does on all infrastructure. No,not the sole reason but it has certainly accelerated the problem.

I dispair that you cannot see something so obvious/

[EDDIE51]

^^ The electricity generation shortfall would be exactly the same if we had not had a single immigrant to the UK since the 1970s . The main users of electricity are large industrial manufacturing sites , domestic use is small by comparison. The drive for' Low Carbon Emission' has seen off coal fired power which otherwise could have been expanded to cover the old 1950s power plants that now have to be closed.
I am interested to see how you justify your assertion that the electricity generation shortfall is largely due to immigration. please can you explain your reasoning?

[EDDIE51]

Anyway don't worry, as soon as we implement 'Brexit' all immigration problems will magically disappear.

[Old_Geezer]

After Brexit immigration will be more controlled but hardly solved until industry learns to attract and/or train domestric labour and stop shorting the national market by pulling in immigrant workers from elsewhere. That won't happen overnight.

[Orderlimit]

^ Yes, completely agree old_geezer.

[EDDIE51]

Can we return to the topic being discussed ? This is in danger of being hijacked into an anti immigration thread!

[Togo]

I note that no one replied to my earlier posts.

[Hopkirk]

I suspect it wasn't the Americans giving the heads up, Togo.

Mrs May was known to be concerned about the deal when just a cabinet member, so as soon as she got the authority and was faced with it getting the go ahead she was bound to press the pause button.

[Togo]

If that is the case Hopkirk then perhaps Mrs May is more perceptive than she was given credit for in the tussle to become the leader of the Conservatives. You must admit thought makes you wonder. The decision to not proceed without further "details" looks like a very good one.

[Hopkirk]

So far she has given me confidence in her abilities.

[Old_Geezer]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/08/11/australia-blocks-electricity-deal-with-china-for-national-securi/

Seems the UK might be good at setting new trends.