Hinkley Point nuclear power talks reach 'critical stage'

“by siarad2@
How can you say that france having too much nuclear energy and having to make money selling it is a problem????
i think we would all be happy with that in the uk dont you?

As regards your solution it has merits if it works and that is a big if!

Yes the Chinese are trying to overcome technical problems and build a thorium reactor but are still in the research stage and yes our Chief scientific adviser Sir John Beddington said in September that the benefits of thorium are "often overstated" but conceded "theoretical advantages regarding sustainability, reducing radiotoxicity and reducing proliferation risk".

But what are we saying wait a couple of years and assuming the chinese crack the problems we can then start planning to build a reactor that no one else has ever built??

thorium can process old nuclear waste, so if it works we build a reactor in the future, if it doesnt we have a mix of electricity generation.
A sensible approach not a gamble. As regards cost per unit who cares any more we are being scxxxed on every other front, but unlike a railway we cannot afford to use, we can use electricity.....”

“@decaston
France has, at about 80%, too much uranium nuclear energy & is thus FORCED to export it as Denmark is forced to export windtricity.
You're living in cloud cuckoo land if you think Hinckey will supply at €0.14, 12p, that's 30%cheaper than I pay now, are you honestly saying our electricity bills will reduce.
Tying us up for 40 years to what will be an expensive energy will be ruinous.
India & China are both delving into thorium nuclear, cheaper, quicker to build, likely to be transportable, no centuries of nuclear waste & modulated - getting over the problem France has with uranium nuclear.”

“We have coal for 300 years but are told by do-gooders that cannot used that -we have shale gas but are told by do-gooders we cannot use that, we are told by do-gooders we cannot use tidal wave energy as it will damage coast and birds, we are running out of ways to keep warm and have electricity!
I know lets just pay a fortune to russia that will solve a problem and of course if they realise we have no alternative they wont charge more will they?
We need energy for security and nessesity and if its a question of paying£32billion for a railway called "public transport" that at £200 a ticket the vast majority of public will never use and benefit from arriving 30 mins early or prop up nuclear I know where my vote is!


Nuclear power is the primary source of electric power in France. In 2004, 425.8 TWh out of the country's total production of 540.6 TWh of electricity was from nuclear power (78.8%), the highest percentage in the world.
France's nuclear power industry has been called "a success story" that has put the nation "ahead of the world" in terms of providing cheap, CO2-free energy.[2] In terms of industrialized nations, mainland France has the lowest carbon dioxide production per unit of GDP in the world and it is the largest exporter of electricity in the world, earning it approximately 3 billion euros annually in sales. France exported a net power surplus of 55.7 terawatt hours (TWh) to neighbors in 2011. With a net 2.4 TWh of that electricity exported to Germany, after that nation shut down power plants in 2011.
As of 2012, France's electricity price to household customers is the 7th cheapest amongst the 27 member European Union, and also the 7th cheapest to industrial consumers, with a rate of €0.14/kWh to households and €0.07/kWh to industrial consumers, substantially cheaper than that offered by France's closest competitor - the Electricity sector in Germany. German electricity is largely produced by burning fossil fuels, such as coal, and as of 2012 Germany, along with India and China, are building more coal burning power plants.”

“Don't do it!
Tell them to get lost.
Uranium nuclear will be outdated & expensive while we'll still be paying this extortion.
Tell them to get lost.
Better, safer & cheaper things are coming that will be quicker to build too.
We've a 15% tax on our electricity bills now & we don't want more to fill the pockets of the rich.
Tell them to get lost.
Our industry will be at a disadvantage with this expensive energy while other countries have cheaper.
Tell them to get lost.”

“@ Ted_F I completely agree. The governments seem to stumble from one "green solution" to another, with no real solution on how to stop the lights eventually going out. If they had invested as much money in nuclear, as they have wasted on "green solutions", perhaps we wouldn't still be reliant on other countries to build our power stations.”

“This is the situation a country gets into when none of its MP's have any sort of science/engineering training but are public school/professional politician clones. How did we go from being world leaders in nuclear power to a third world basket case in a single generation???”