The new Nuclear age in the UK

So Britain is to allow new Nuclear power plants to be built for the first time in a long time. • s The government has given the go-ahead for the UK's first new nuclear station in a generation. France's EDF Energy will lead a consortium, which includes Chinese investors, to build the Hinkley Point C plant in Somerset. Ministers say the deal will help take the UK towards low-carbon power and lower generating costs in future. Critics warn guaranteeing the group a price for electricity at twice the current level will raise bills. "For the first time, a nuclear station in this country will not have been built with money from the British taxpayer," said Secretary of State for Energy Edward Da • ce The two reactors planned for Hinkley, which will provide power for about 60 years, are a key part of the coalition's drive to shift the UK away from fossil fuels towards low-carbon power. Ministers and EDF have been in talks for more than a year about the minimum price the company will be paid for electricity produced at the site, which the government estimates will cost £16bn to build. The two sides have now agreed the "strike price" of £92.50 for every megawatt hour of energy Hinkley C generates. This is almost twice the current wholesale cost of electr Tive' This will fall to £89.50 for every megawatt hour of energy if EDF Group goes ahead with plans to develop a new nuclear power station at Sizewell in Suffolk. Doing both would allow EDF to share costs across both projects. Mr. Davey said the deal was "competitive" with other large-scale clean energy and gas projects. David Cameron:"It kick-starts again the British nuclear industry" "While consumers won't pay anything up front, they'll share directly in any gains made from the project coming in under budget," he added. John Cridland, director-general of business lobby group the CBI, welcomed what he said was a "landmark deal". "It's important to remember this investment will help mitigate the impact of increasing costs. The fact is whatever we do, energy prices are going to have to go up to replace ageing infrastructure and meet climate change targets - unless we build new nuclear as part of a diverse energy mix." However, Dr Paul Dorfman, from the Energy Institute at University College London, said "what it equates to actually be a subsidy and the coalition said they would never subsidise nuclear". He added: "It is essentially a subsidy of between what we calculate to be £800m to £1bn a year that the UK taxpayer and energy consumer will be putting into the deep pockets of Chinese and French corporations, which are essentially their govern Vests Chinese companies China National Nuclear Corporation and China General Nuclear Power Corporation will be minority shareholders in the project. The move follows Chancellor George Osborne's announcement last week that Chinese firms would be allowed to invest in civil nuclear projects in the UK. Prime Minister David Cameron said that the new Hinkley Point plant was "an excellent deal for Britain and British cons Well we shall see about that. Little to no mention has been made on nuclear waste and what is to come of that. All this sounds very good apart from the fact that this will not bring down prices for ordinary people. Nationalisation is one thing the left will call for no doubt but nothing short of workers control will do to ensure affordable prices for all. I am not in favor of state capitalism and effectively this is what we have here all be it ownership from abroad with China and France getting in on the act it would seem. The world has a bumpy future in terms of energy if capitalism is allowed to continue to exist I confidently predict. The demand for more and more energy will force the capitalists into more and more risky acts to gain a competitive edge including the controversial practice of fracking which I’ve blogged about before too. With the first new power station being built in the UK in a generation will this signal a turn back to nuclear in the long term? All remains to be seen.

Happy fracking Christmas

This Christmas fracking is back on the menu. The profiteering exercise of extracting shail gas from rocks is back and ready to rake in profit for the capitalists. Fracking in Britain was suspended after earthquakes were caused around Blackpool by fracking operations, but the moratorium soon ends. In the US, a 5.7 magnitude earthquake occurred in Oklahoma, while a Geological Survey report concludes that: most, "if not all of the earthquakes [in the USA] since August 2001 have been triggered by the deep injection of wastewater" in fracking. 60% of Britain's countryside could potentially be exploited for shale gas as Osborne looks to Texas - which produces more CO2 emissions than all but the top six countries in the world. Texas has 48,000 jobs relying on fracking. Osborne intends to water down Britain's commitments to cutting emissions and threatens renewable energy programmes, which, if properly pursued, would create as many jobs as fracking does in the USA, while saving the environment rather than wrecking it. Eight million gallons of water and carcinogenic chemicals are used to frack a well, then disposed of deep in the earth, where they contaminate groundwater and poison the surroundings. Methane released into groundwater by fracking rises through fissures and water wells where it can be ignited at the tap. US reports claim over 1,000 documented cases of water contamination next to areas of gas drilling as well as cases of "sensory, respiratory, and neurological damage due to ingested contaminated water." David Kennedy, who heads the statutory body advising the government on meeting its carbon reduction goals, severely criticised Osborne's announcement, saying the dash for gas through fracking, "would not be sensible, or compatible with meeting carbon budgets and the 2050 target" and would damage investment in renewable. The UK target is to cut emissions by 80% by 2050, compared with 1990 levels. David Cameron consequently vetoed Kennedy's appointment to a post heading the Department of Energy and Climate Change. Osborne's government puts energy company profits before the welfare of the planet. This is the cheapest way for gas companies to find energy. It’s time to end the lie that the con-dems are the greenest government yet it’s time to end this all for profit motive and end the rule of this illegitimate government who have no mandate to govern even less to tear up our environment for their friends pockets. with extracts tkane from the excellent article in this weeks socialist on fracking by pete mason.

Why i am against nuclear energy

This post is not a opputunistic or shallow post as someone on twitter claimed me to be for highliting the dangers of nuclear energy as we wittness the meltdown in Japan of more and more of their nuclear power plants.


Radiation from Japan's quake-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has reached harmful levels, the government says.

The warning comes after the plant was rocked by a third blast which appears to have damaged one of the reactors' containment systems for the first time.

If it is breached, there are fears of more serious radioactive leaks.

Officials have extended the danger zone, warning residents within 30km (18 miles) to evacuate or stay indoors.



It appears that for the first time, the containment system around one of the Fukushima Daiichi reactors has been breached.

Officials have referred to a possible crack in the suppression chamber of reactor 2 - a large doughnut-shaped structure below the reactor housing. That would allow steam, containing radioactive substances, to escape continuously.

This is the most likely source of the high radioactivity readings seen near the site. Another possible source is the fire in reactor 4 building - believed to have started when a pool storing old fuel rods dried up.

The readings at the site rose beyond safe limits - 400 millisieverts per hour (mSv/hr), when the average person's exposure is 3mSv in a year.

A key question is whether this is just a transient spike, which might be expected if number 2 is the source, or whether the high levels are sustained.

In the meantime, the key task for workers at the plant remains to get enough water into the reactors - and, now, into the spent fuel pools - with the poor resources at their disposal.

Reactor breach worsens prospects
The crisis has been prompted by last Friday's 9.0-magnitude quake and tsunami in north-eastern Japan.

On Tuesday morning, reactor 2 became the third to explode in four days at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

A fire also briefly broke out at the plant's reactor 4, and is believed to have caused radioactive leaks.

Reactor 4 had been shut down before the quake for maintenance, but its spent nuclear fuel rods are still stored on the site.

Radiation levels in the Japanese capital - 250km (155 miles) away - were reported to be higher than normal, but officials said there were no health dangers.

Tokyo residents have been stocking up on supplies, with some stores selling out of items such as food, water, face masks and candles.

Housewife Mariko Kawase, 34, told AFP news agency: "I am shopping now because we may not be able to go out due to the radiation."


I myself am anti nuclear and have never seen it as a safe and long lasting renewable energy source. If there was not such more capitalist greed from the energy providers in the world we cold invest a lot more money into greener safera nd altogether safer energies.

In China they plan to build 300 more nuclear power plants in the next 10 years and with the UK's previous and present government fully signed up for this nuclear program which i find very worrying indeed.

I think we should be looking for alternative sources of energy as best we can. There is still no proven safe way of disposing nuclear waste that we know of yet. So far they have been burrying it in the ground which deams the area dead for years. This cannot be good for the planet and we must look again at other alternative forms of energies .

I have found a list of nuclear disasters over the years and highlights the actual dangers of the use of nuclear.

Serious radiation accidents include:

29 September 1957 – Mayak nuclear waste storage tank explosion at Chelyabinsk. Two hundred plus fatalities, believed to be a conservative estimate; 270,000 people were exposed to dangerous radiation levels. Over thirty small communities had been removed from Soviet maps between 1958 and 1991.[20] (INES level 6).[19]
July 4, 1961 – Soviet submarine K-19 accident. Eight fatalities and more than 30 people were over-exposed to radiation.[6]
1962 – Radiation accident in Mexico City, four fatalities.
1979 - Church Rock uranium mill spill in New Mexico, USA.
March 1984 – Radiation accident in Morocco, eight fatalities.[7] 　
August 10, 1985 – Soviet submarine K-431 accident. Ten fatalities and 49 other people suffered radiation injuries.[21]
September 13, 1987 – Goiania accident. Four fatalities and 249 other people received serious radiation contamination.[8]
December 1990 – Radiotherapy accident in Zaragoza. Eleven fatalities and 27 other patients were injured.[6]
6 April 1993 - accident at the Tomsk-7 Reprocessing Complex, when a tank exploded while being cleaned with nitric acid. The explosion released a cloud of radioactive gas. (INES level 4).[19]
1996 – Radiotherapy accident in Costa Rica. Thirteen fatalities and 114 other patients received an overdose of radiation.[5]
February 2000 - Three deaths and ten injuries resulted in Samut Prakarn when a radiation-therapy unit was dismantled.[9]
April 2010 - Mayapuri radiological accident, India, one fatality.



Of course the most famous and well known nuclear disaster occured in Chernobyl

The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian SSR (now Ukraine). It is considered the worst nuclear power plant accident in history, and it is the only one classified as a level 7 event on the International Nuclear Event Scale.

The disaster began during a systems test on 26 April 1986 at reactor number four of the Chernobyl plant, which is near the town of Pripyat. There was a sudden power output surge, and when an emergency shutdown was attempted, a more extreme spike in power output occurred, which led to a reactor vessel rupture and a series of explosions. This event exposed the graphite moderator components of the reactor to air, causing them to ignite. The resulting fire sent a plume of radioactive fallout into the atmosphere and over an extensive geographical area, including Pripyat. The plume drifted over large parts of the western Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and Northern Europe. Large areas in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia had to be evacuated, and over 336,000 people were resettled. According to official post-Soviet dataabout 60% of the fallout landed in Belarus.

The accident raised concerns about the safety of the Soviet nuclear power industry, as well as nuclear power in general, slowing its expansion for a number of years and forcing the Soviet government to become less secretive about its procedures.[3]
Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus have been burdened with the continuing and substantial decontamination and health care costs of the Chernobyl accident. Fifty deaths, all among the reactor staff and emergency workers, are directly attributed to the accident. Estimates of the total number of deaths attributable to the accident vary enormously. Despite the accident, Ukraine continued to operate the remaining reactors at Chernobyl for many years. The last reactor at the site was closed down in 2000, 14 years after the accident.


So i do hope what is currently happening in Japan doesnt lead to another disaster on this scale like in Chernobyl

I think we should make people aware of the dangers nuclear poses and try and turn our governments against the ideaa nd look more towards greener energies even if it cost them more. It would be worth it if it meant us having a greener planet.