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Publicatie Laka-bibliotheek:
Voodoo economics and the doomed nuclear renaissance:Research-paper (2008)

AuteurPaul Brown
Datum2008
Classificatie 2.05.0.00/52 (GROOT-BRITTANNIË - ALGEMEEN)
Voorkant

Uit de publicatie:

INTRODUCTION

VOODOO ECONOMICS AND THE DOOMED NUCLEAR RENAISSANCE

Successive British governments have announced ambitious plans for a new nuclear 
age. Over 50 years they have promised to build families of identical reactors 
producing cheap power. Each plan has faltered. Delays, U-turns and cost overruns 
have turned each into a financial headache for the taxpayer- while electricity 
consumers' bills have been pushed up to pay the extra costs.

It is about to happen again.

The announcement in January 2008 of another new family of reactors is repeating 
the same mistakes. Against the evidence of history and the current knowledge of 
the nuclear industry the Government is displaying breathtaking optimism about the 
potential for the technology.

The economics of building new nuclear power plants, endorsed by the Government, 
are based on the figures provided by the industry - which of course has a vested 
interest in making them appear competitive. Yet the nuclear industry has never 
completed any project in Britain on time or on budget. The Government's own 
figures say a new nuclear power programme will cut gas imports by only 7 per cent 
and carbon dioxide emissions by 4 per cent. Yet the programme for four gigantic 
new stations will get political encouragement and public subsidy on the false claim 
that Britain needs them for security of energy supply and to reduce carbon emissions.
Without government help these stations could not be built.

Ministers seem unaware that at the same time as endorsing a new family of reactors, 
to be designed and to be delivered by foreign suppliers, there is an unfolding crisis 
in the existing British nuclear industry.

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