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New UK nuclear project Hinkley Point C – now a”dead duck” ?

Resignation of EDF finance chief shows new UK nuclear plant ‘a dead duck’ By Molly Scott Cato | EurActiv.com, 16 Mar 16, Five years on from the Fukushima, the human and environmental impacts of the disaster  continue to grow in scale, writes UK Green MEP Molly Scott-Cato.

Molly Scott-Cato is an MEP for South-West England and Gibraltar, whose constiutency covers the Hinkley Point nuclear reactor.

This is a key reason why I am fighting so hard to prevent the new reactors at Hinkley point in Somerset from being built.

Nuclear-power is not commercial; it cannot survive without government subsidy and never has been able to during the 60 years of its existence. That in itself should be enough to close the question of whether we wish to build new nuclear power stations in Europe. But somehow the commercially unviable deal to build at Hinkley has slipped between the scrutiny of commercial and political interests, and between the political authorities at Westminster and in Brussels. It is extraordinary that such a shaky deal could have got so far and endured for so long as it was never going to survive in a commercial market.

For me one of the most shocking aspects of the deal was how little concern was raised by UK politicians. We are talking about a deal that involves two Chinese nuclear companies that are ultimately under the control of the Chinese Communist Party gaining access to our civilian nuclear industry. I am astonished that Conservative MPs are prepared to countenance such a risk to our national security.  And this is to say nothing of the risk of suicide terrorism which we are left open to when nuclear stations are operational anywhere in the country.

Commercially the Hinkley deal has been a dead duck for some time. ………

The issue of most concern in this whole sorry saga is the total absence of genuine political scrutiny. Most UK MPs only seem to have woken up and taken any interest about a week before the deal was signed off last autumn. Cameron and Osborne have been operating as though in a legal vacuum. The British media has paid no attention to the rules of the single market and my continual efforts to interest them in the issue of state aid have failed……..https://www.euractiv.com/section/climate-environment/opinion/resignation-of-edf-finance-chief-shows-uk-new-nuclear-plant-a-dead-duck/

March 18, 2016 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general