Underreacting

Here's another good reason why nuclear power is not the saviour some seem to think it is.

OK, Hunterson 'B' is an older plant, and it's not a total outage this time. Nonetheless, if anything goes wrong, even with just one of the reactors, that's still 4000 GWh - nearly 9% - lost from our total output.

No-one's really going to notice if a single wind farm, hydro scheme or conventional station goes down for any reason. In comparison, even leaving aside all the other 'cons' offered by nuclear, opting for such a generating future would still be putting a lot of eggs in comparatively few baskets.

You Couldn't Make It Up

Nuclear power is needed to help reduce carbon emissions and to ensure that the UK has secure energy supplies in the future, Tony Blair has told MPs.

BP has abandoned plans for a £500m UK carbon capture power plant at Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, it has emerged.



'The energy company said the decision was a major disappointment but blamed Westminster delays over support. About 1,000 jobs were expected to be created if the green project was ultimately given the go-ahead'.

Some are fond of asserting that the lights will go out unless we build new nuclear power stations in Scotland. If this is anything to go by, the only way to keep the lights on will be to get rid of the sclerotic museum piece that is Westminster government.

Bloody idiots.