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-   -   UK nuclear plans 'put energy in French hands'Government plans for nuclear power risk (https://www.cableforum.uk/board/showthread.php?t=33686283)

geminian68 13-03-2012 03:39
UK nuclear plans 'put energy in French hands'Government plans for nuclear power risk
 
Quote:
Government plans for nuclear power risk handing control of the UK's climate and energy policies to France, according to four senior environmentalists.
Quote:
Energy giant EDF and reactor builder Areva, big players in the UK's plans, are largely French government-owned.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17344263

beeman 13-03-2012 07:51
Re: UK nuclear plans 'put energy in French hands'Government plans for nuclear power r
 
Well that's no suprise and quite unavoidable. We need a new generation nuclear industry and in the UK we just don't have the talent needed because we as a nation got scared of the nuclear boggy man. The French on the other hand embraced nuclear and carried on building/refining the technology after Chernobyl. So when it comes to looking for a knowledgeable partner to help bring new reactors online who better to look at then one of very few world leaders in the tech who just happen to bee only 30 miles across the channel.

Tim Deegan 13-03-2012 09:23
Re: UK nuclear plans 'put energy in French hands'Government plans for nuclear power r
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by heero_yuy (Post 35398343)
Environmentalists just searching around for another stick to try and beat everybody else with. We need nuclear power if the lights are to stay on and the French have solid experiance with nearly 80% of their electrical power being nuclear.

As for it being French how is that a risk? Any reasonably competent engineer will be able to understand how it works and needs to be maintained. If we ever had a fall out with the French do you really think that the UK government would let a French company shut down UK power plants? Utterly preposterous.
When you include the decomissioning costs, nuclear power is very expensive. It is also the most dangerous form of power production when things go wrong.

Germany are actually getting rid of their nuclear power stations.

I bet the French will hand them back to the UK when they need decomissioning, so the French make the profits, and then we have to pay out.

martyh 13-03-2012 09:30
Re: UK nuclear plans 'put energy in French hands'Government plans for nuclear power r
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by heero_yuy (Post 35398343)
Environmentalists just searching around for another stick to try and beat everybody else with. We need nuclear power if the lights are to stay on and the French have solid experiance with nearly 80% of their electrical power being nuclear.

As for it being French how is that a risk? Any reasonably competent engineer will be able to understand how it works and needs to be maintained. If we ever had a fall out with the French do you really think that the UK government would let a French company shut down UK power plants? Utterly preposterous.
Have to agree .The enviromentalists told us for years that we need to stop using coal,gas and nuclear power plants and start using wind and solar power generation ,so we did we started building wind farms and sticking solar panels on every roof ,now they are telling us that wind farms are a blight on the landscape ,and homes with solar panels could be unsellable in the future .Honestly you can't win

Tim Deegan 13-03-2012 10:00
Re: UK nuclear plans 'put energy in French hands'Government plans for nuclear power r
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by martyh (Post 35398353)
Have to agree .The enviromentalists told us for years that we need to stop using coal,gas and nuclear power plants and start using wind and solar power generation ,so we did we started building wind farms and sticking solar panels on every roof ,now they are telling us that wind farms are a blight on the landscape ,and homes with solar panels could be unsellable in the future .Honestly you can't win
I know I'd rather live next door to a wind farm, than a nuclear power station. :erm:

Osem 13-03-2012 10:06
Re: UK nuclear plans 'put energy in French hands'Government plans for nuclear power r
 
Thanks to decades of short termism and political dithering we're now in between a rock and a hard place when it comes to energy supplies. I dislike the thought of our nuclear power generating capacity being provided by a foreign power but it seems we have no choice. Developing our own industry to the required levels now would take many years, by which time it'd probably be too late. The way energy prices are rising, it may even already be too late for us to avoid significant problems as a result of shortages and a lack of generating capacity. One thing seems certain, if we don't do something very significant about this problem soon the lights are going to start going out in the not too distant future and recent price rises will seem trivial.

---------- Post added at 10:06 ---------- Previous post was at 10:04 ----------

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tim Deegan (Post 35398370)
I know I'd rather live next door to a wind farm, than a nuclear power station. :erm:
You'd need a blooming big wind farm to produce what one nuclear power station would and that's forgeting about the need to turn it off during periods of the 'wrong sort of wind'.

martyh 13-03-2012 10:14
Re: UK nuclear plans 'put energy in French hands'Government plans for nuclear power r
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Osem (Post 35398376)
Thanks to decades of short termism and political dithering we're now in between a rock and a hard place when it comes to energy supplies. I dislike the thought of our nuclear power generating capacity being provided by a foreign power but it seems we have no choice. Developing our own industry to the required levels now would take many years, by which time it'd probably be too late. The way energy prices are rising, it may even already be too late for us to avoid significant problems as a result of shortages and a lack of generating capacity. One thing seems certain, if we don't do something very significant about this problem soon the lights are going to start going out in the not too distant future and recent price rises will seem trivial.

---------- Post added at 10:06 ---------- Previous post was at 10:04 ----------



You'd need a blooming big wind farm to produce what one nuclear power station would and that's forgeting about the need to turn it off during periods of the 'wrong sort of wind'.
Indeed ,as far as i know nuclear is the most efficient way to realistically generate our power requirements and kidding ourselves that we can substitute that with wind,solar or tidal power is just going leave us at the mercy of other countries to supply us

Tim Deegan 13-03-2012 10:15
Re: UK nuclear plans 'put energy in French hands'Government plans for nuclear power r
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Osem (Post 35398376)
You'd need a blooming big wind farm to produce what one nuclear power station would and that's forgeting about the need to turn it off during periods of the 'wrong sort of wind'.
It may have to be big, but it would only be a fraction of the size of the areas contaminated by radiation from our nuclear power stations over the years.

It's actually quite funny that people believed the government when they said the radiation from Chernobyl had contaminated sheep and cattle in Cumbria...news to everyone, that leak came from Sellafield (which used to be called Windscale, until it got such a bad name due to leaks). It was just very convenient for the government that a nuclear power station had just blown up in Russia, so they could blame it instead.

Tim Deegan 13-03-2012 10:58
Re: UK nuclear plans 'put energy in French hands'Government plans for nuclear power r
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by heero_yuy (Post 35398412)
Think again:



Linky

Similar concentrations of radioactive waste are around smelting plants.

I think I'd rather have a reactor that is under constant surveilance to the n'th degree than the wholesale pollution accumulated over decades of uncontrolled combustion by products.
Sorry but that is complete rubbish. Radioactive waste is extremely highly radioactive, and has to be sealed in indestructable glass flasks that will last 1000's of years, so that the radiation doesn't leak out.

Carbon may be slightly radioactive, but doesn't even come close.

So the facts are that waste from a nuclear power station that is 100% sealed gives off less radiation than the carbon from a coal fired power station...well it doesn't take a scientist to work that out, because the carbon isn't sealed.

The many leaks of radiation that have taken place over the years in the UK, have not been from radioactive waste, then have been from the plants themselves.

Dai 13-03-2012 11:02
Re: UK nuclear plans 'put energy in French hands'Government plans for nuclear power r
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Osem (Post 35398376)
You'd need a blooming big wind farm to produce what one nuclear power station would and that's forgeting about the need to turn it off during periods of the 'wrong sort of wind'.
And that's before you start looking at the massive pollution involved in wind farms. The magnets for these wind turbines rely on rare-earth elements which are produced at huge cost to the local environment.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/mosl...ous-scale.html

Tim Deegan 13-03-2012 11:08
Re: UK nuclear plans 'put energy in French hands'Government plans for nuclear power r
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by DaiNasty (Post 35398442)
And that's before you start looking at the massive pollution involved in wind farms. The magnets for these wind turbines rely on rare-earth elements which are produced at huge cost to the local environment.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/mosl...ous-scale.html
  1. Don't take any notice of anything you read in the Daily Mail
  2. It doesn't do half as much damage to the environment as a radiation leak, or a nuclear accident.

martyh 13-03-2012 11:23
Re: UK nuclear plans 'put energy in French hands'Government plans for nuclear power r
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tim Deegan (Post 35398451)
  1. Don't take any notice of anything you read in the Daily Mail
  2. It doesn't do half as much damage to the environment as a radiation leak, or a nuclear accident.
Problem is though because wind isn't consistent ,wind farms need backup from gas/coal even nuclear powered stations negating any saving in CO2 emissions and increasing the cost of power generation

Tim Deegan 13-03-2012 12:04
Re: UK nuclear plans 'put energy in French hands'Government plans for nuclear power r
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by martyh (Post 35398471)
Problem is though because wind isn't consistent ,wind farms need backup from gas/coal even nuclear powered stations negating any saving in CO2 emissions and increasing the cost of power generation
I agree. However nuclear power stations just aren't safe enough. Remember Chernobyl and Three Mile Island.

There are is also wave power, and hydroelectric.

watzizname 13-03-2012 12:05
Re: UK nuclear plans 'put energy in French hands'Government plans for nuclear power r
 
The problem with a nuclear fix is that it's a short term solution, as i do remember reading that there's only so much of the right plutonium available on the planet.

The amounts available were such that there was probably only enough to last about 30 years, and given how many countries are also seeing it as viable alternative to fossil fuels right now, that number could be getting shorter.

martyh 13-03-2012 12:18
Re: UK nuclear plans 'put energy in French hands'Government plans for nuclear power r
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tim Deegan (Post 35398500)
I agree. However nuclear power stations just aren't safe enough. Remember Chernobyl and Three Mile Island.

There are is also wave power, and hydroelectric.
Well knowledge of the industry has come on a long way since those occurrences and so has technology.Chernobyl was undoubtedly caused by poor maintenance and poor design .Three mile island was caused by human error and mechanical faults .In a modern reactor these sort of issues ,although not impossible to happen ,would be a lot less likely to happen .I think safety has come on in leaps and bounds since those accidents


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