Following on from my previous Nuclear post. It’s good to see that the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM) have published its final recommendations for dealing with the long-term management of the UK radioactive waste.
It comes at a time, when the UK is facing important decisions that it must make about the generation of its energy needs as we move towards the end of the first decade of this new century. See the latest Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) energy review for the latest UK government view. If we (the UK) do, (as I believe that we should), re-invest in a new generation of nuclear fueled electricity generation stations, it is important that there is a clear methodology available on how we should deal with the inevitable nuclear waste.
Why do I believe that we should re-invest in new nuclear fueled electricity generation stations? How else can we sustain today’s technology driven society without having a more secured generation capacity (interesting document from British Energy who generate around one-fifth of the UK’s power needs).
It seems to me that despite a serious need to reduce consumption through various conservation means [1], [2], [3], we must still ensure that we have our own ability to generate electricity without an increasing reliance in energy imports, particularly gas and to a lesser extent oil as more power is generated from gas than oil.
Here, in this Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) Note of October 2004, there is a very clear indication in the Overview of what the future circumstances of UK gas imports would be for today – 2006, and more importantly what the predicted gas import figure could be, by 2020 – “The UK’s indigenous gas supply is diminishing. By 2006 the UK is expected to be a net gas importer; by 2020 up to 80% of the UK’s gas will be imported.”
With Russia already showing it new found energy muscles in slowing down delivery of supply – vis a vis the Ukranie – do we really want to be at the behest of overseas countries as to where and when we can use our own power?
The current UK Government needs to take a better long term view with regards to the various aspects of the UK’s infrastructure such as power generation, water & sewerage provision and transport, but in particularly power generation. My opinion is that this and past governments (political parties) have seemed to more interested in their own ‘dogma’ and short term re-election campaigns than in the long term future of the UK and its needs when it comes to power requirements.
Also with nearly all of our major power generators (and other aspects of infrastructure) now in private (and often non-UK) hands it is very likely that their future focus will be for short term shareholder profits rather than long term planning.
We need action by the government on new nuclear power stations now, before we end up having blackouts because we’ve run out of power or before someone has turned the supply of gas off!
Some more background information to this post:
1. This 2005 map shows who are some of the biggest importers of Gas.
2. An article on the UK’s Natural Gas Depletion from Depletion Scotland
3. The Interconnector – How the gas imports arrive to the UK or not if its switched off!
4. How many power stations are there in the UK?
5. Who owns the Power Stations in the UK?
Tags: Nuclear Power, Gas, Power Stations, Energy, Conservation
Powered by Qumana
Beasley's Place 