Why I believe now is the time for Nuclear!

Why I believe that Nuclear power is the only viable large scale solution to many issues we are being faced with currently in the UK.

As with any piece where I give my personal opinion I really don’t want to mislead anyone (And possibly a throw back to my days as a councillor and making declarations of interests) so I will come out up front and say that as an Employee of EDF Energy, who are a subsidiary of EDF, who create 78% of their power through Nuclear power, I would be a hypocrite if I claimed to be anti Nuclear power whilst happily pocketing my pay check each month. However with the news that inflation in the UK has hit 3.6% for the last month of 2010 I think that we need to really look at why despite the country bordering on recession the rate of inflation seems to be staying stubbornly high. The reason is that this is not Inflation in a way that we can control, this is imported inflation. And in particular Oil driven inflation. Now on the news this morning they mentioned the increases in Fuel and Utilities both of which are very closely linked to the price of Oil (The Wholesale Gas market is based on the cost of Oil) the one thing that does not seem to be mentioned in this is that we will be unable to control our own inflation (if we can ever control it again in a globalized world.) until we reduce I reliance on oil and in particular the OPEC cartel who know that there is a limited amount of time left to make money out of oil – if we Ignore increases in demand, which is something that is highly unlikely with China predicted to double their demand within 10 years, there is around 40 years of Oil left in the planet, if China and India join the US in the 20M barrels per day league (if not more) and Brazil expected to hit over 5M per day this will reduce the oil left to around 25-30 years (And imagine how much those last few barrels will cost.) And this is why we need Nuclear power now, no longer can we try and steer our economy through internal control measures when our economy is tied to the whims of a product of which we are a net importer. Only Nuclear has the benefits of stability of supply tied to being a carbon neutral production. With production of Electricity no longer tied to wholesale prices, the costs of the electricity produced by Nuclear power stations are known in advance, which combined with electric vehicles means that the costs of transport and utilities would only need to be increased in line with the costs of inflation, rather than being a key make up of inflation as they are currently.

Whilst I am a big fan of alternative power generation, One of the best sites I have seen is a field of Solar Panels turning towards the sun in Germany, and I think that wind turbines are really majestic as they swing through the sky, the problems they have is no reliability of supply, and a much higher per KW/H cost to Nuclear. Perhaps some day we will be able to successfully deploy a fleet of Tidal/Wind/Solar generators in the Atlantic to generate all of our power needs until that technology is advanced enough we would need to continue our exposure to oil. Let’s not forget that despite the advances made in Nuclear Technology a planning to generation period for a reactor of ten years has not been unheard of, all this means that if we put of making a decision of for 10 years there may be a good chance that Oil will run out before the new reactors are built, we must therefore (Again this is solely my opinion) build a new fleet of nuclear reactors now and then use the years of guaranteed supply to look for more efficient renewables after this. We could then look to build our next generation of cars and power stations to take advantage of Hydrogen power which is synthesised from water and emits water as the result of using it, but it is a long way off from being a commercial and technical reality.

Can Vince Cable Bring Down the Government?

So it would appear from the press that the coalition are in the process of collapsing, this stunning revelation comes from Vince Cable stating that being part of the coalition is like a constant war. Now there are a few questions that come up from this story.

Primarily, is Vince Cable really a nuclear weapon? Or is this just wishful thinking? Personally I am taking this as a bit of a naive boast. Cable thought that he was talking to two Lib Dem voters in his constituency and it is possible therefore that he decided to “over egg” his power in the coalition in order to justify the votes he received. Surely there is no one man that could bring down the government in one move, if Cameron decided he’d had enough and walked away from Number 10, it may trigger an election but even then I think you will find that in this time of belt tightening and financial pain the general public have little appetite for another general election.

The Second question that struck me immediately on hearing the story was, Is anyone else actually surprised? This is a Coalition government not a single party system, a fracture in a party is something you may not expect (Although personally I welcome it.) but a fracture between two parties is hardly news worthy, I do not believe that the Lib Dems and Conservatives have formed a single party but rather are two parties doing the adult thing and are looking to put their differences aside in the national interest, this can not be easy for any of them and a coalition government will by the very definition always be weaker than a single party administration.

Finally I want to ask if Vince is actually wrong in what he said, he has always been a bit of an uncertainty in the coalition and is definitely one of the less easy cabinet members so I doubt very much that it will shock the PM too much. I am sure that they will be having a word with him to try and ensure that he is more careful with regards to who he talks too but at the end of the day shouldn’t MP’s be allowed to express their own opinions? Surely we elect these people based on believing they are the best person to represent us, therefore why do we insist on trying to silence them all the time. I may not like what Mr. Cable has to say but if it is what he believes then surely he should be allowed to say it (It would then be down to the PM to see if he should be allowed to remain in the cabinet, and the people of Twickenham to decide if he should be allowed to remain in Parliament.) I don’t really see what it has to do with the rest of us, I personally fear a time when our MP’s are not allowed to have independent thoughts, as then you will find that only a few people shape the entirety of our society.

Entering the New Nuclear Age?

Chris Huhne has today outlined the coalition's feelings over Nuclear power, If I was still a member of the council I would have to declare an interest on this one as my company EDF are the world leader in Nuclear and after purchasing British Energy last year are also the UK's biggest Nuclear Generator. It would therefore be no surprise to know I am pro nuclear and strongly believe that the time to invest in the next generation of plants is here (in fact a few years overdue) I was pleased when the Tories went into the election in favour of Nuclear but have to admit was slightly worried when Chris Huhne was made Energy Secretary as obviously the Lib Dems were opposed.


However it does look like there will be a new generation of reactors after all as Mr Huhne has said that as long as no public money is involved a private consortium would most likely be successful in obtaining permission to build a Nuclear Power Station. Now I am not nearly senior enough in the company to know if they were hoping for public money but I doubt it.

The New More Efficient, Less Waste and Air Strike Proof European Pressure Reactor (EPR)

I know that the Lib Dems would prefer all energy to come from renewables, and whilst I think this is an admirable goal and I do personally love to see Wind Turbines, Dams and Solar Fields - In fact one of my favourite memories of travel is watching the Waldpolenz Solar Park coming to life at sunrise whilst taking a trip across Germany.

A small part of the vast solar generating park in Eastern Germany

But unfortunately I believe that we are at least two decades away from a permanent solution to the problems of Consistency and dependability which we have with Wind and Solar. And with many of our current generation options at or beyond their operational lifespan Nuclear is the only thing that can bridge the gap and offer the freedom from the volatility of fossil fuels that the economy and the environment so badly need.