I was reading an article yesterday on renewables which said that the nuclear power plants being built in the UK currently have an agreement with the government for an energy price of around £130 per kw, about double that being paid for renewables.
3 Likes
That is probably required for them to be built in the first place. The capital investment is huge.
2 Likes
I do remember a lot of noise around the financing for Hinckley point C which from memory was effectively mortgaging our energy security to France (EDF). It was going to add to everyone’s bill to cover it.
1 Like
God forbid a UK Chernobyl will make a few sunny days the least of our worries
1 Like
We actually had Windscale. It was only a fortuitous weather pattern that prevented Liverpool and Manchester from being major fallout zones.
2 Likes
Yeah we had Windscale. Thankfully meltdowns are far less likely with the more modern reactors. Chernobyl’s reactor design had some specific weaknesses on that front. (Technically it was a steam explosion too)
There are of course still very significant environmental challenges with modern nuclear plants. I also hope they’ve designed this one with half an eye on decommissioning.
3 Likes
Real concerns, or fear mongering?
1 Like
Unexploded bombs are a real problem. There are dedicated disposal teams in Germany and it is estimated that 2000 tonnes are dealt with annually. Mostly these are inert and safely removed, although occasionally they have controlled explosions: essentially evacuating the area and detonating the bomb. This happened a few years ago opposite my mother-in-law’s flat. The shop frontage below was completely destroyed, although the only noticeable damage in her flat was a shattered glass floor lamp.
There is definitely a possibility of bombs in woodland. We live in a forest area and there is a chain of craters across farmland and into the forest that would have been from a stray bomber, presumably targeting the Ems-Dortmund canal. It’s quite possible that there are unexploded bombs in there that would have originally been buried in moorland. In fact some of them have been excavated elsewhere by forestry workers.
As to whether a forest fire could set them off, there was an incident a few years ago when an army test range was set on fire (probably due to live fire munitions) and this caused a chain reaction whereby the moor itself caught fire and there was difficulty putting it out due to the risk of spontaneous munitions explosions. I’m not sure how many (if any) did go off, but the risk was there.
These are the pictures from the regional news service (text in German, but it is more for the pictures of the fires):
2 Likes
Gutted to hear the New Forest is burning. Just a couple of water bombers could take that fire apart in a day or two, shame the UK doesn’t have any - and Canada certainly cannot loan them out in the fire season (the ones in California recently would otherwise have been idle in Quebec through the winter).
1 Like
Don’t get me started on air support for fire fighting. We had a fire in the Rhiniog mountains that went on for over 3 weeks and for whatever reason they couldn’t get air support to it, despite there being an airport at the coastline with a helicopter with the equipment and skills for it.
Reminds me. Off to the rugby thread with a rant on the latest WRU disaster.
I saw 8 canadair flying overhead in formation the other day. Fires everywhere ATM here in France. They are even employing massive air force equipped carriers to help.
Still it’s not enough under the present climate and there’s lots of interrogation.
I think what is needed is better coordination and négociation with southern hemisphere countries so fleets of these things can be were they are needed.
It just seems a lot of expense for, usually, a 2 month period (sure that looks like becoming longer.
Of course the UK needs to do some serious thinking. I think 80k people where evacuated due to the forest fires 
in the Bordeaux region ( not sure if that included the holiday makers or not but had the impression they were quoting the number of residents).
Forestry planning seems to need a serious look at soft woods all in a line look to burn 
so much quicker than mixed ‘natural’ woodland. Still most of the propagation is through ‘brush’.