Posted on 01/07/2008 7:36:07 PM PST by Stoat
The future ... Sellafield plant
EXCLUSIVE
BRITAIN is to build a new generation of nuclear power stations with NO LIMITS to the amount of energy they supply.
At least 40 per cent of our energy will come from state-of-the-art plants.
That is twice current output – and ministers will confirm that new suppliers could ultimately provide ALL our energy needs.
The revelation will infuriate environmental campaigners.
Britain now gets just 20 per cent of its power from nuclear plants. France gets 80 per cent – and the UK is set to follow suit.
PM Gordon Brown has overruled objections, with the decision set to be announced on Thursday.
A Whitehall official said last night: “Nuclear power is the only realistic option for our future. We must not rely on other nations.”
Trade secretary John Hutton will tell MPs on Thursday that the UK must be self-sufficient.
Britain’s security will be in peril if we continue to rely on Russian despot Vladimir Putin or Middle Eastern states for our gas and oil.
Insiders pointed out that any option for future power will involve dearer domestic bills.
The PM’s spokesman said: “Power station owners and operators would have to set aside funds to cover the full cost of decommissioning. We have always been clear that the full costs of the long-term management and disposal of waste should fall on operators.”
Mr Hutton said: “The energy landscape is changing. The idea that Britain can meet its growing power needs through renewable energy and greater efficiency is nonsense.”
Britain will be unable to cope over the next 50 years on coal, gas and oil stocks. Wind farms are too costly and have huge opposition.
We currently have 12 nuclear power stations. A new generation of plants like Sellafield and Dounreay will dramatically cut our CO2 emissions.
New reactors are to be built at Sizewell in Suffolk, Dungeness in Kent, Hinkley Point in Somerset and Bradwell in Essex.
Moderate environmentalists agree nuclear power is a better solution to global warming. A string of the oldest Magnox reactors are to be put out of action, including those at Bradwell, Dungeness A, Hinkley Point A and Sizewell A and Calder Hall in Cumbria.
But Friends of the Earth’s Roger Higman slammed nuclear power as a “discredited dinosaur”, saying: “Britain can meet its energy needs, maintain energy security and tackle climate change with a programme of renewables, energy efficiency and cleaner carbon technology.”
THE eye-watering hike in gas and electricity prices should tell us all that cheap energy is already a distant memory.
Britain is at the wrong end of a long and unreliable gas pipeline which starts in Russia and flows through countries which will put their own customers first.
Nuclear power is our only independent option.
We have already wasted too much precious time.
Unless we act fast, we may soon have to think twice before boiling a kettle or switching on the lights.
Looks like the ole Brits are smarter than us, or at least more realistic.
Now, if only we could get started ASAP in the USA.
This is what happens when one threatens a Brit's tea.
“We must not rely on other nations”
There is a message here.......
Good for the UK! Screw the Enviroweenie Luddites.
Good for them. I’ve already gotten to the point I turn off all the lights in the house. The kids are trained to never leave a room with the light on. I think the majority of my electric bill comes from running FreeRepublic =P
Maybe one day we’ll wake up and start doing the same. I have no problem charging an electric car if it costs me practically nothing to do so.
bump
Who’d have thought that the U.K. under Gordon Brown would have more sense about solving the power crisis than America?
Not really. They need the power to light up all the MOSQUES being proposed.
Well, if the British socialists are okay with nuclear power plants, the American left will be following like sheep soon after. And thats a good thing, I think.
Are the Germans still planning to shut down all their plants?
That was a really good one!!!LOL
But for the Radical lefty anti-nukers of the 1980’s — now ranting about global warming — we would be energy independent today and the Arab oilers would be far, far less strategically powerful.
Amazing none of the Republicans have hammered this point ....
This comes out on the same day that Gov. Corzine in New Jersey has his spokesmen come out and say that NJ will reach our greenhouse gas reduction goals by building one, if not two new nuclear power plants.
As reported by AP on Oct 30 from Lisbon, Portugal—[NJ’s] Governor Corzine dashed across the Atlantic on Monday to join an international coalition that is waging a battle against global warming — and to vault New Jersey into the forefront of the fight. Corzine signed onto a pact with Britain, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Spain that supporters say confronts head-on the growth of greenhouse gas emissions. Other members of the new International Carbon Action Partnership are California, New York and British Columbia.
Agreed, but I urge caution. These proposals strike at the heart of the Left's dogma, and they will not likely go down without a fight. Regardless of the obvious clarity and commonsense nature of this new vision, there will be untold caterwauling over this and the weaker politicians may lose what little backbone they might be able to muster.
Hopefully the sane majority in Great Britain will give the embattled ministers a good amount of support, and we Yanks can help too.
Just as we can contact our American politicians and let them know how we feel (the immigration war of last summer proves that we CAN make a difference) we can also contact politicians across the Pond. I have done so in times past, and have found the office staff of UK Government power brokers to be extremely polite and courteous, and oftentimes delighted to get a call or an email from an American. They all know that the world is watching them on issues such as this, and even if we can't help with a vote or a campaign contribution, they are still appreciative of the moral support during times of animosity and political squabbling.
It's in our best interest for our British Friends to succeed on this, as that will give our weak-kneed politicians over here some extra courage to institute similar plans.
I will be delighted to support any such effort.
I think that Duncan Hunter has made some great pro-nuclear statements, or am I mistaken?
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