Re: Nuclear Madness
 

Aren't the French (EDF) building a few nuclear power stations fro the UAE? Who is going to be running them ? If Emiratis have control , how hard would it be for them to divert some of the Uranium towards a clandestine enrichment program?

Re: Nuclear Madness
 

Looks like more trouble:

EDF decision on Hinkley Point should be declared void, say French unions
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...proval-nuclear

China has said that its relations with the UK are at a “crucial historical juncture” amid doubts over the future of the controversial Hinkley Point C nuclear power station.
Well, with all due respect, **** you. We're not going to be bullied into this by threats from a foreign power with probably the worst energy track record in the world.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...t-liu-xiaoming

A short but interesting piece on alternatives:
https://www.theguardian.com/environm...s-than-hinkley

Re: Nuclear Madness
 

Scot47 is neither fat nor bald. Eagle-eyed and athletic. And he is certainly not Chinese. Or French. Or an Anglophile.

Re: Nuclear Madness
 

Barack loves Theresa.

The Chinese company with a major stake in the proposed Hinkley Point C nuclear power station has been charged by the US government over nuclear espionage, according to the US justice department.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...-hinkley-point

Re: Nuclear Madness
 

Rhubarb (and not in a bad way):

The world's next energy revolution is probably no more than five or ten years away. Cutting-edge research into cheap and clean forms of electricity storage is moving so fast that we may never again need to build 20th Century power plants in this country, let alone a nuclear white elephant such as Hinkley Point.

The US Energy Department is funding 75 projects developing electricity storage, mobilizing teams of scientists at Harvard, MIT, Stanford, and the elite Lawrence Livermore and Oak Ridge labs in a bid for what it calls the 'Holy Grail' of energy policy.

You can track what they are doing at the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). There are plans for hydrogen bromide, or zinc-air batteries, or storage in molten glass, or next-generation flywheels, many claiming "drastic improvements" that can slash storage costs by 80pc to 90pc and reach the magical figure of $100 per kilowatt hour in relatively short order.

Holy Grail of energy policy in sight as battery technology smashes the old order

Re: Nuclear Madness
 

Theresa May has now given approval, but with a "new agreement" with EDF, but no details given.

I predict that some of those opposed will now be taking their gloves off.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...-gets-go-ahead

Re: Nuclear Madness
 

And before anyone bleats about it being "green", the following is an excerpt from the Nobel-winning Physicians for Social Responsibility report:

Thus the collapse of building 4 could lead to the release of many times more radiation than has already escaped from Fukushima. This would leave much of Japan uninhabitable and would constitute a global disaster.

Green, eh?

Costs and Consequences of the Fukushima Daiichi Disaster | PSR

Re: Nuclear Madness
 

C'mon Millhouse, I want to hear your wisdom. How will it all unravel? EDF's financial collapse? Technical failure at the two like plants under construction? Massive (sorry, even more massive) cost / time overruns at those two plants? Civil unrest? Greenham Common-style protests? A politician with ears connected to brain, and vertebrae that work as Mother Nature intended?

The world went cold on nuclear in the immediate wake (in all three senses of the word) of Fukushima. Now it's like my hangover two weeks ago -- I remember it and vowing never to drink that much again, but I've already got tomorrow's wine/port/Parmigiano-Reggiano session planned. Madness.

Re: Nuclear Madness
 

Like Trident - some people will make large sums of money out of this folly.

Re: Nuclear Madness
 

At some point it will fold when we leave the EU. Pressure on the currency and affordability must become a consideration. As soon as the EU starts being difficult on trade this will be the first to go. I reckon the warm signals are just strategy for the inevitable trade talks.

Re: Nuclear Madness
 

Germany has broken a new record for renewable energy, with low-carbon sources nearly obliterating coal and nuclear power last weekend.

At one point on the sunny and breezy Sunday, sustainable energy from wind, solar, biomass and hydro power provided a record 85 per cent of the country’s total energy.

Yeah, ok, it was a Sunday. But Germans aren't exactly famed for their lack of technological or economical astuteness, and they plan to phase out all nuclear by 2022 and most fossil fuel plants. 2022: long before Hinkley becomes operational (if it ever does).

As I think I might have mentioned before, 7 new offshore farms the size of the London Array, plus wave and solar, with storage and further consumption reductions (easily achievable) make conventional generation redundant.

Hinkley needs to be stopped.

Germany breaks renewables record with coal and nuclear power responsible for only 15% of country's total energy | The Independent

Re: Nuclear Madness
 

and what happened when it rained and wasn't windy? Would love to see a chart of max and min contribution.

Apparently the danes will the first to go carbon free.

Re: Nuclear Madness
 

That's where the storage comes in -- which it hasn't yet, but it will.

Denmark has no nuclear (and imports a very small amount of nuclear electricity), with wind the main contributor after coal. Norway produces 96% of its electricity from hydro. Sweden produces 60% from renewables.

There's a potentially greater (politically, at least) danger of Hinkley: engineering, procurement and construction get under way, technological difficulties persist, renewables and storage synthesise to the point where there can be little resistance to their dominance and (quick) implementation, Hinkley grinds to a halt, and so we have to weather the fallout from the French and the Chinese going off in an enormous huff...

Re: Nuclear Madness
 

Do the German figures include electricity they buy from elsewhere in the EU and the gas they buy from Russia or is it just domestic production?

Re: Nuclear Madness
 

You do have to remember that a lot of the Scandies heat their homes and water using Geothermal energy and so the draw on the grid from residential properties is relatively small and so their efficiency is slightly misleading as generating heat is massively energy heavy.