Ten nuclear stations to be built in bid to prevent energy shortage

Ten nuclear power stations are to be built in Britain at a cost of up to £50 billion as the Government tries to prevent the threat of regular power cuts by the middle of the coming decade.

The announcement comes after a radical shake-up in planning laws. Under powers awarded to the Government last month, local authorities have been stripped of the right of veto over new nuclear plants and other key energy projects. Decisions will instead be taken by the Infrastructure Planning Commission, which was created to slash the period required to secure consent for energy projects from seven years to one year.

Mr Miliband said: “The current planning system is a barrier to this shift. It serves neither the interests of energy security, the interests of the low-carbon transition, nor the interests of people living in areas where infrastructure may be built.”

The reactors should meet at least a quarter of electricity demand by 2025. “New nuclear is right for energy security and climate change and will be good for jobs too,” Mr Miliband said.

Each new reactor will generate up to 1.6 gigawatts — enough to power a city the size of Manchester — and should last for 60 years.

The first is likely to be built by EDF Energy at Hinkley Point, Somerset, and should come into service by the end of 2017. New reactors at Sizewell, Suffolk, Wylfa, Anglesey, and Oldbury, Gloucestershire, are also likely to be among the first wave. Hartlepool, Co Durham, Bradwell, Essex, Heysham, Lancashire and three sites near Sellafield, West Cumbria, were also named.

www.timesonline.co.uk...

I don't think I'm the only one who could see this coming. Fantastic news.

when international regulators are saying there are huge uncertainties surrounding the basic safety of new reactor designs,”

LOL. No, they are not. Quiet the opposite, in fact.




These Nuclear plants are equivalent to to the power of 30,000 of the worlds largest wind turbines (1.5 Mw @ 30% capacity factor). 30,000 wind turbines would need 2 668 050 square kilometres of land, equivalent of a square with each side 1600 kilometres long. Of continuous WINDMILLS. And then you need FOSSIL backups because the wind doesn't blow all the time.



[edit on 14/11/2009 by C0bzz]

It's about frigging time the Government pulled their finger out and they needed to change the law so that they could build them before the other stations (coal and Nuclear) go offline from around 2018.

They've been warned by the National Grid for several years about a pending energy crisis, but did sod all about it when times were good. Now, when we're broke, we have to fork out for these new stations and still have to import power from the French from time to time.

Aye, they should have been building these 10 years ago.

And unlike windfarms these won't require massive new pylons running across the middle of the Scottish Highlands - because the infrastructure is already all in place.

For the record, I used to live a few miles from Bradwell and I only have 3 extra fingers and I don't glow in the dark unless it's a new moon