All entries for Thursday 10 January 2008

Little Britain and the Nuclear Power Debate

Writing about web page http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3177360.stm

Bill Bryson in his book Notes from a Small Island remembered his days as a reporter in Bournmouth. He was surprised to find more French radio stations than English when tuning in his car radio and even more surprised to note that he was closer to Paris than London. His mental geographic picture had been distorted by the ‘Little Britain’ view of our media. I laughed as everyone squeezed into Cornwall not to see the ‘99 Eclipse when a great view was had across thousands of miles of mainland Europe.
The same parochial blinkers are being deployed with all the angst about safety and waste as we debate the replacement of our aging Nuclear Power Stations. This map from 2003 shows that France has more reactors on the English Channel coast that the entire UK is envisaging in this next round. In the Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and Windscale (remember we were the first) scale of things these are in our back yard. Yes, the French DID decide to renew their reactors back in ‘03.

We have been struggling with the waste management problems for more than 50 years and the nuclear waste problem has not gone away. But our understanding and available technologies have improved and these problems seem very long term compared with climate change!

Robert McGonigle : 10 Jan 2008 10:17 |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem