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
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Mark Swift
Good point Rob, would be useful if a bit of Entente cordiale went on and we even share our resources as demand fluctuates in our countries.
06 Feb 2008, 09:56
David Dundas
Our (UK) problem is that there are not enough engineers and scientists in positions of authority in the UK, especially in Government, for us to understand how nuclear power is the only way we are going to stop the climate change juggernaut before it really is too late. Whilst fission nuclear power has its problems they become insignificant when the risk of global warming is properly assessed. The ITER project for nuclear fusion technology is the long term solution but is unlikely to produce viable engineering within the next 50 years and we cannot wait that long. For Mark Swift: we do already share electric demand with France, from whom we buy it at our peak demand (its useful to have an hour’s difference) via million volt cables under the Channel.
19 Feb 2008, 11:01
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