BritishPowerinOverseasHands

This week has seen Britain allow EDF to purchase its entire nuclear energy capacity. For the uninitiated let’s make it clear that EDF is a French company, part owned by the government of that country. Let us also clarify that the French would never allow the reverse to happen, and they are right and the UK is wrong.

How can the UK justify allowing about 20% of its entire energy generation to fall into the hands of a foreign country that might not always have the same interests as those of the U.K?

The reasons given are that EDF has proven recent experience in construction of nuclear power plants, know how to operate them, and have all the know how necessary to achieve the vast nuclear building program the UK is going to need in the next 20 years.

The country is going to need to replace all but one of the existing generations of nuclear power plants with new, increased capacity and ultra -efficient. Even so there is the real possibility of an energy shortfall within the short to medium term that will not be met by the currently envisaged construction program.

Of course we all can and do support alternative energy generation but we also know that this is just going to be supplementary to our needs, not a replacement for conventional fuels. If we can get this to meet up to 20% of our medium term needs we shall have done brilliantly, more than this is simply mass delusion. The technology is not efficient enough and is too costly.

Furthermore it mystifies everyone that the United Kingdom has more or less totally stopped coal mining when it has more than 200 years of coal supplies under the ground. The country desperately needs energy generation, and it is available under our feet, but our government ignores it. This makes no sense but is allowed to continue as we import coal.

Short-term commercial interests may inform our decisions, and imported coal is for now, cheaper than what we can dig ourselves, but this should have been a strategic decision for the national long-term interest. The UK needs its own fuel and power generation. As a nation I believe the country took the same, mistaken direction over certain other key industries and allowing control over our power generation is a national tragedy in the making.