From yesterday’s Observer:
In fact, Sellafield is a classic illustration of the failure of British industry. We were pioneers of nuclear power but in our desire to build our own atomic weapons, failed abysmally when it came to developing and managing our own civil reactors and reprocessing plants.
Every now and then, I have these little ‘technology epiphanies’. I can’t think of a better phrase but if you’ve ever marvelled at the ability to send email, talk over the internet, find an obscure fact in seconds, or order miscellaneous goods from far-off places, no doubt you’ll know what I mean. The internet lets you do some absolutely amazing things.
Can I just say that £6.8bn would buy a heck of a lot of solar panels? I realise there are all sorts of likely benefits for physics and materials research but the main headline about the new investment in nuclear fusion is certainly all about the theoretical energy potential:
Tony Blair is giving a big speech tonight to representatives of British industry and is taking the opportunity to less-than-subtly hint that nuclear power is back on the agenda. The reaction from green groups has been predictably critical and it’s certainly easy to be cynical about whether or not the Energy Review was a done-deal from day one.
There’s an interesting article in the Guardian this morning about the budget sounding better than it actually is for microgeneration and sustainable energy. The general impression is that the amounts being put forward are not enough: Jeremy Leggett from Solar Century suggests it needs to be “billions, not millions”. While this may be hyperbole, the government certainly could be doing more on climate change and this discrepancy makes the PM’s recent claims that he wants a “technological revolution” to help solve the problem sound a bit disingenuous.
The Sustainable Development Commission, the government’s advisory body on sustainable development issues, released a report yesterday that says nuclear power is not the answer to the UK’s energy security and climate change problems.
