Fate of UK’s nuclear plants in doubt over ageing infrastructure
This is an interesting story, demonstrating the need to re-start the investment plans for new nuclear or to put more “umph” into other sources of energy. It also raises the question of what we are to do with the sites (in rural settings in Kent, Somerset, Lancashire and Cleveland) when the power plants close. Lets hope they’re not going to be left as off limits danger zones due to the cost of clearing them up properly. Sounds like this issue is getting closer to the top of the long policy grass sooner than expected……
Britain’s nuclear power stations recorded a 12% decline in their contributions to the country’s energy system over the past month, as outages raised concerns over how long the ageing plants will be able to keep operating.
A temporary closure of two of the country’s eight nuclear plants resulted in a double-digit drop in nuclear generation in January, compared to the same period last year.
Prospects for new nuclear projects have commanded headlines and government attention in recent weeks, with Hitachi and Toshiba scrapping their plans for major new plants.
But the fate of the existing plants, which usually provide about a fifth of the UK’s electricity supplies, has been pulled into focus by outages due to safety checks and engineering works running over schedule. Nuclear outages also push up carbon emissions because any capacity shortfall will typically be replaced by fossil fuel power stations.