TODAY. The GREAT BRITISH NUCLEAR financial mess

Christina Macpherson

Dec 1

In a gloomy financial statement, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said the Office for Budget Responsibility had judged that the UK's economy was shrinking. J.P.Morgan said on Tuesday it expects a contraction in the UK's economy next year as it enters a lengthy period of stagnation in the face of soaring gas prices, slowing global growth and tighter economic conditions. It predicts "Tighter monetary and fiscal policy amid scarring from both the pandemic and Brexit"

In the midst of all this financial gloom, both the Tory government and the Labour opposition delight in predicting a boom in electricity production from a fleet of nuclear reactors both Big and Small - a fleet that is magically going to appear like some sort of miasma - as taxpayer funds pour into nuclear projects like Sizewell C (Big) and Rolls Royce's 470 MWe SMR (Not Really Small At All)

Seven months ago the UK government dreamed up "Great British Nuclear" - a "flagship" to "enable nuclear projects". Now it is clear that "Great British Nuclear" is nothing more than a public relations exercise.

Wylfa and Cumbria nuclear projects failed. because, although the
government offered to take a 30 per cent stake, no other investors came
forward. Now the government is to take a 50% stake in the up to £43 billion Sizewell C , - again desperately touting for investors.

And now - the government unveils plans to establish "Great British Energy", a new arms-length public body to oversee UK nuclear power pipeline

The Tories pinched the name from the opposition Labour Party, which touted its plan as "all about renewables". But Labour didn't mind a bit, when the government co-opted it and turned it into some sort of nuclear justification body. Indeed, Labour's just as ecstatic as the Tories, about Britain's wonderful nuclear future - and to hell with the expense!

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