BBC News: Hinkley Point: French government ‘completely committed’ to plant

Hinkley and the Greens

Hinkley Point already has or had nuclear power stations and so the site being chosen for Hinkley Point C does not come as a surprise.

Until planning permission was granted, the Green Party has many objections ranging from nuclear waste (OK granted – its nasty stuff) to environmental damage, pylons, fumes from trucks an so on.

None of these of course were ever threats to the possible employment of thousands of people, the boost to the local economy and the boost in power reserves. Whilst most of that statement is a sad indictment of the human state, the latter part presents the true problem.

The Greens need to be able to come up with a better alternative, they don’t want fossil fuel as this introduces ancient CO2 into the atmosphere, generally agreed as a bad thing. They do propose the use of renewable energy sources such as wind which is notoriously unreliable, solar which only works during the day and tidal which only works twice a day. The main problem with this type of energy production is that it cannot produce the amount of power a single nuclear plant can generate.

Perversely then their argument for blight on the landscape cancels out since one power plant could not cause as much blight as a thousand windmills or several acres of solar panel.

It remains then that nuclear is the least damaging in terms of physical blight and pollution (excepting the nasty nuclear waste) until such time as solar or even hydrogen fuel cell efficiency and cost is at such a level that each home can produce its own energy.

Here’s the BBC article. . . enjoy

Hinkley Point: French government ‘completely committed’ to plant – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36063561