There's Always Another

Completion of the blanched radioactive pachyderm at Hinkley Point C has not been noticeably hindered by the pandemic, although the relevant corporate benefits claimants have utilised the excuse with characteristic inefficiency. At the moment, the new reactor is scheduled to start operating only a year later than originally planned, at a price only seventy-two per cent more than the original estimate. None of the extra cost will be borne by the British taxpayer, at least until the cowboys start squealing for a handout. This level of quality is of course standard for the nuclear industry, and somewhat above average for a great leap forward announced by the National Johnson; yet the managing director of Hinkley Point C has still felt obliged to invoke the pandemic in mitigation. It seems a rather profligate use of a reasonable pretext, but perhaps the company feared missing its chance. For future delays and overruns it can always fall back on monkey-pox, the war in Ukraine, the decline of the Cornish tin-mining industry, sunspots and so forth.