Don't Just Sit There - Go Nuclear
Fuel prices are on the rise and the UK is becoming an importer of oil and gas; but nobody has noticed this, because the Secretary for the Welfare of CBI Members, Alan Johnson, has just issued a wake-up call to galvanise us out of our flabby complacency. The time has come, it seems, to decide what forms of energy to promote. Like every other decision made by the Blair government - the invasion of Iraq, the privatisation of the health service, the commercialisation of education - this will be a decision for the ages; it will, according to some of our more clairvoyant ministers, "shape energy policy for the next 60 years". Doing nothing, Alan Johnson lectured, is not an option. I suppose we could do with getting it right, then.
To this end, the Government has launched a three-month review - sixty days to plan for the next sixty years. Wagging his finger further, the minister said that by 2020 "coal and nuclear power plants currently generating almost a third of the UK's electricity were expected to be closed", and that "Companies will need to decide how this capacity should be replaced." The private sector must make the decision, putting, as is customary, the country's interests over the next sixty years well before any quick-fix, short-term profit option; and then the Government will do its part by providing "a clear framework" to implement what has been decided. It is certainly reassuring to see the kind of democracy that is working so well in Iraq being practised closer to home.
The review has been condemned by green activists as a "spin operation in favour of nuclear" and welcomed by industry leaders on approximately the same grounds. Nuclear, say the latter, has "the potential to deliver secure, reliable, carbon-free energy". The nuclear industry is "keen to build new plants in the UK without being held up by lengthy planning inquiries", which certainly should do wonders for the safety margins; and once the coal, oil and gas run out, of course Britain's ever-reliable natural reserves of uranium will come into their own as a cheap, clean source of fuel. Best of all, even assuming it made a difference, most of those who will have to do the clearing up are not yet old enough to vote.
To this end, the Government has launched a three-month review - sixty days to plan for the next sixty years. Wagging his finger further, the minister said that by 2020 "coal and nuclear power plants currently generating almost a third of the UK's electricity were expected to be closed", and that "Companies will need to decide how this capacity should be replaced." The private sector must make the decision, putting, as is customary, the country's interests over the next sixty years well before any quick-fix, short-term profit option; and then the Government will do its part by providing "a clear framework" to implement what has been decided. It is certainly reassuring to see the kind of democracy that is working so well in Iraq being practised closer to home.
The review has been condemned by green activists as a "spin operation in favour of nuclear" and welcomed by industry leaders on approximately the same grounds. Nuclear, say the latter, has "the potential to deliver secure, reliable, carbon-free energy". The nuclear industry is "keen to build new plants in the UK without being held up by lengthy planning inquiries", which certainly should do wonders for the safety margins; and once the coal, oil and gas run out, of course Britain's ever-reliable natural reserves of uranium will come into their own as a cheap, clean source of fuel. Best of all, even assuming it made a difference, most of those who will have to do the clearing up are not yet old enough to vote.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home