Britain Offers 18 More Sites for Nuclear Plants

From Reuters: Britain said on Thursday it was making 18 more sites available for the next generation of nuclear power stations and gave operators four weeks to pick the ones they wanted.

"Interest in building new nuclear power stations in the UK is strong," Business Secretary John Hutton said in a statement on the Government News Network.

That's putting it mildly. Currently, the U.K. derives about 19 percent of its electricity from nuclear energy and, while the goal is to increase the percentage dramatically, no target was given in the article.

Comments

Anonymous said…

If Britain actually goes ahead with a big build of like 10 big nuclear plants that they are talking about they will become a world leader in nuclear. And have clean, affordable energy for 2 generations of future Brits to come.

They need to just go for it.

March 7, 2008 at 3:52 AM

paddythesaint said…

"...while the goal is to increase the percentage dramatically"

Not strictly true. The new stations will, by and large, replace older stations coming offline. Six stations (2 final Magnox and 4 AGR's) are due to come offline by 2015. By 2020 the only nuke station that will still be generating (assuming no extensions) will be Sizewell B.

March 7, 2008 at 10:30 AM

Anonymous said…

I think it's necessary to take a look at the broader picture Paddy. IF...and it's a big "if"...they build the 10 plants, and they due within or close to budget and schedule, then it will of won over the public completely, IMO, and they will go "all nuclear" by the middle of the century.

Plus...all the proposed plant builds are much bigger units than the current fleet.

David

March 8, 2008 at 9:33 AM

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