nuclear-news

Hinkley Point C nuclear power project – another Great British Cock-up

Unherd 22nd June 2018 , The great British cock-up: ten times the state got it catastrophically
wrong. Tony Benn, that great champion of socialist state planning, was, as
‘Minister of Technology’, instrumental in saving Concorde from
cancellation in late 60s.6 Fittingly, he also played a pivotal role in
another ill-fated venture – the Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor or AGR. The
supposedly superior design was meant be a sure-fire winner for British
industry. In practice, the AGRs were plagued by construction delays and
operational problems. Many of the problems continue to this day and we
still have the decommissioning costs to look forward to – which were, of
course, significantly underestimated.

With an unerring failure to learn
from past mistakes, the current UK Government is now committed to Hinkley
Point C – the fabulously expensive new nuclear power station due to be
built next to Hinkley Point B, the first of the AGRs. HPC is of a different
and more recent design – but one that already has a track record of
construction delays and cost overruns. Undaunted, the Government has signed
us up to the project – only this time we’ll be blowing billions to the
benefit of French-owned industries instead of British ones. Brilliant!
https://unherd.com/2018/06/great-british-cock-ten-times-state-got-catastrophically-wrong/

June 25, 2018 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general