The British government has decided that building new nuclear power stations would be a good idea after all. Business Secretary John Hutton has stated that new nuclear reactors could be built next to existing reactors around the country.

Of the UK’s 24 nuclear reactors, many are becoming quite elderly having been commissioned in the 1960s and 1970s. All but one of the current reactors which currently provide about 20% of UK power generation will have been decommissioned by 2025 which raises a problem. Most estimates suggest that the first of the new reactors will come on line at about the same time (2025) so there will be a huge and increasing energy gap up to that point at which the first new reactors can start making a dent in the UK’s energy requirement.

Quite where the UK is going to find the extra energy it needs in the interim decade or so is anybody’s guess.

The UK currently imports electricity from France, it is unlikely that they could cover our increased needs but their own model is sound. The French have 59 nuclear reactors providing 70% of the power requirements of a population comparable in size to the UK. Their principal energy company EDF (Électricité de France) manages these reactors and already has major interests in the UK. I suspect that EDF will probably be the primary company for new reactor construction in the UK. This is probably a good thing as the French pretty much lead the world in reactor design and technology.

So, this leaves us hamstrung by the governments procrastination. If they’d pulled their collective finger out at the turn of the century, we would have new reactors on-line by now and a level of energy security we can only dream about having (or have nightmares about not having).

I can only hope that EDF or any other company that takes up the challenge of providing new reactors can fast-track the construction process and saves us from the energy black hole we face. I’d hate to have to move the delusionofgrandeur server to France to avoid it going on a 3 day week.

As I wrote earlier this month, the MEGA battery-electric van factory in Channas, France burnt to the ground on the first of December. Obviously things, to my UK eyes looked bleak for MEGA. The rest of Aixam’s lines were still able to make cars but I thought that the MEGA line could be out of action for months. Despite this, a confident press release at the time mentioned that MEGA had already rented a new building. Surely false optimism, I thought.

But no, as of the 18th of December, incredibly there is a new MEGA van on the production line at the new factory!

Orders received end of November will certainly be delivered within the end of
January 2008 – which means less than 8 weeks delivery time. People will
work hard between Christmas and New Year’s Day to speed up the
rehabilitation.

Well, I’ll never be able to accuse the French of being work-shy. Any British company faced with such a crisis of a destroyed factory and line would surely have either gone out of business or at least suspended the line. It must take some true grit and determination to get a line back in production in just three weeks.

I wish MEGA every success with their facelift MEGA Van model line.

You can read the full press release HERE

Et la version française est ICI

How do you like my tabloid headline?

Well, it’s true enough, British Forumula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton has been banned from driving after being caught at over 120mph on an Autoroute in Northern France.

The F1 Championship runner-up was pulled over by traffic police near the town of Laon, fined €600 and banned from driving for one month.

Although not specifically stated in news reports, the ban probably also attracts 6 points which can be applied to his UK driving licence via the reciprocal arrangement between the UK and France (in fact, the ban could be applied). Hamilton was lucky that the full force of the law was not applied as the French are nowadays very strict about speeding and could have taken his licence for up to 3 years.

The Mercedes Benz CLK that was reportedly driven at excessive speed by the 22 year old has had to be collected from the French police on Hamilton’s behalf.

Inline Photo Credit: AngMoKio cc-by-sa
Header Photo Credit: Martin Pettitt cc-by