Nuclear Waste? We can’t build Hinkley C

The last video spoke about the financial stupidity of building a new nuclear power plant. This new video looks at the nuclear waste issue.

This blog is a look at part of my interview with Theo Simon. Theo is one of the spokes persons for Stop Hinkley C. Nuclear waste is one of the biggest concerns surrounding a new plant at Hinkley.

Proposed Hinkley C: Power Plant and Waste Dump

In this video we discuss the most compelling reason for not building a new nuclear power plant: nuclear waste.

Nuclear waste is already the most expensive part of our current nuclear program. Estimates say that over £70 Billion will be required to safely store our waste underground.  This cost is going up all the time. The crazy part is that we have no place to store our waste.

The new plans for a nuclear plant at Hinkley will include waste storage on site! that means the good people of Somerset can look forward to having more nuclear waste stored in their county for hundreds of years.

The legacy of nuclear waste on British soil will be the undoing of our heritage and our green and pleasant land. Radioactive waste is not part of our idea of a nice place to live.

We can change the way things are going. We can make a difference if we all pull together as a team.

Time to Write your MP.

Time to write your Congressman, or Senator.

Time to write to your representatives within the National People’s Congress.

Watch the next video here.

The Financial Swindle

It turns out that the UK public is underwriting 10 billion pounds of the construction cost for Hinkley C. This will create a nuclear disaster of a different sort. A Nuclear Financial Disaster, NFD!

I have mentioned that we don’t need Hinkley C or any other new nuclear power plant.

Video interview #2: The Financial Swindle

Here is another interview video interview with Theo Simon.

The government will pay a bribe to Somerset County and West Somerset councils to help the Hinkley C project. The deal, totaling £128m, will last for 40 years, which is the planned lifetime of Hinkley Point C. This cost is in addition to the build price and the costs of waste disposal(a totally unknown amount).

Selling our future for too high a price is a financial swindle

The High price for Hinkley C power is a financial disaster. Today, electricity sells on the wholesale market for about £45 per megawatt-hour (MwH). But anything under £90 a MwH would see Hinkley lose money. On the other hand, go over £100 and by 2020, when Hinkley would still not be operating, wind energy would be cheaper.

Caroline Lucas, the Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion, said: “When City analysts tell you a contract is ‘economically insane’, it’s time to admit that you might have got it wrong. The analysis doesn’t even take into account the fact that they are only expected to meet a ‘share’ of the costs of dealing with the toxic waste created by their generators, with the public facing another bill for clean-up costs in future.”

So we the people will pay twice the going rate for electricity. We will have to forgo the construction of better cleaner and cheaper options like wind. And we will have a thousand years of radioactive nuclear waste to keep safe. We don’t even know the cost for that.

Time to Write your MP.

Time to write your Congressman, or Senator.

Time to write to your representatives within the National People’s Congress.

Check out the next video interview.

We are blessed to have so many brilliant minds creating our renewable energy future NOW! Let’s use them today to create the future we all want.

The area of renewable energy production that we will explore today is called wave energy.

Aquamarine’s wave generator

This is, to pull a pun, the wave of the future. Using nothing more than the action of waves moving towards a beach, this design can harvest the energy within the wave. Electricity generated by this action is constant, like nuclear power.

One of the LIES used to promote new nuclear power projects is that it is the only way to provide a constant source of power.  A constant source of energy is required to keep the national grid operating. This is called the grid ‘baseline.’

Every National Grid Needs a Base line

This graph is for the US grid but it is similar for the UK grid. Without a baseline of energy ‘charging’ the network of power lines, all your electricity production will sink into a black hole of energy loss. This black hole of demand is the grid itself.

Wave technology that can harvest the power of our shores will provide a constant source of energy. This constant source can be used to power our renewable energy grid of the future.

In our renewable energy future we wont have a power grid like the 19th century dinosaur we use today. Wave energy, wind farms, solar energy, and energy storage systems will make up our energy grid of the future.

We can do this!The only thing stopping the progress of renewable technologies are the greedy lying corporate interests that are ripping you off with ever higher energy bills. These corporations are being helped by the likes of David Cameron and his cronies.

Cameron has cut the Feed In Tariff, which cost UK workers between 30,000 – 40,000 jobs. Cameron then went to France to sign a new deal with EDF to build nuclear plants. Nuclear plants that the UK public have said over and over again that they don’t want. Nuclear plants that we would not need if the Feed In Tariff had been left alone to gradually reduce over time. Germany has created a mega solar industry using the same FIT method that Cameron trashed.

Cameron has now changed the government target for the ECO program. We will see 10,000 more jobs lost. Energy companies have already canceled contracts with major suppliers of efficiency measures and taken away the funding that supported these jobs. We will miss our carbon reduction targets and people will die in their thousands because of Cameron’s greed.

Germany employs over 300,000 workers in their renewable energy sector. We can do the same if we get Cameron and his Big Oil Cronies out of the way.

Wave technology is moving forward in Scotland. Jobs are being created. We can do the same thing in England. Please tell your MP to stop the madness and the greed of Cameron. Our future is at stake!

Write your MP now!

Say No to Hinkley C

Abundant energy surrounds us every day. We can use wind energy to make electricity. We can use the Sun’s light to make solar electricity. The tides and wave action of our rivers and bays can give us more energy.

To put it as simply as possible we do not need any new nuclear power plant in this country.  I have had an interview with Theo Simon from  StopHinkley.org

Stop Hinkley C Site

The interview was taped so that I could provide you with a clear understanding of why we will stop hinkley from being built.

See the Video interview – No to Hinkley C

Video 1: No To Hinkley C

Please watch this video and come back to see the other interviews that I am posting in future. I am doing interviews for my book “E is for Energy – The 9 Lies of the Energy Monopoly.”

If you have anyone in mind that would like to take part in an interview, please leave a comment below.

If this video has moved you into action, start by writing your MP

If you have written to your MP then check out the stophinkley.org site and see how you can help.

Watch the 2nd Video by clicking here.

I used to have a great job. I went to work earlier than normal. I worked more than 8 hours a day, and I made a good wage. I sold insulation, boilers, and solar energy systems for home owners. They all loved their upgraded homes and their PV systems and are now enjoying the benefits of the FIT. They are warm and have lower energy bills.

David Cameron cut the FIT payment scheme by more than half and the great job ended. I was out of work, unable to support myself or my family. The higher tax rates I had been paying to the government turned into a JSA – Job seekers allowance payment to me. I was not alone. The entire division of my company that used to sell and install solar systems went under. The parent company was bought for peanuts by a capital investment company. More workers lost their jobs. Estimates are that the radical and needless cut in the FIT tariff caused around 40,000 to lose their jobs.

I have finally found a new job working for a big company selling insulation, boilers and solar systems. This company had contracted with the BIG 6 energy suppliers to use their ECO contributions to help those families in fuel poverty.

Over 2 million homes in the UK have problems with energy bills and have to chose between heating or eating. I have blogged in the past regarding the rip-off rises in electricity and gas over the last few years. Cameron has wrongly blamed these rises on the ECO and Green Deal programs that the government has put in place. This is not true. The cost increases are due to greedy energy suppliers who are manipulating the wholesale cost of energy and then passing the charges on to YOU the poor consumer. They make lots more money each time they do this.

Now Cameron is pushing back the ECO targets. Eco funding was set to help the poor and unfortunate who can’t heat their homes because it costs too much. New boilers and insulation in an older home will help reduce the costs of heating a home. It will also reduce our dependency on foreign fossil fuels and remove the need to frack in the UK.

The more energy efficient we become as a nation the more we become independent from foreign energy suppliers. Greater efficiency leads to reduced need, which leads to no new nuclear power plants being build. Reducing our energy usage also helps us to meet the carbon targets we have agreed to reach. Our climate is changing and we are paying the price with greater storms and flooding. We need to change our ways to help our climate and our country.

David Cameron has decided to use the fraudulent rises in energy prices as an excuse to cut funding to the ECO program. Employers have already begun laying off staff because the energy companies have said they don’t have to fund these programs any more. The cut in funding has been immediate. The loss of jobs has been as fast. Has your bill gone down yet??

Mine hasn’t gone down. IF your bill does go down please comment on this blog so I can spread the good news. I don’t expect to see allot of comments. Cameron is once again helping his friends in#stead of you. Cameron is cutting government support for ECO like he did FIT and we are paying the price with climate change, new nuclear plants, fracking, and a loss of jobs.

Write to your MP and tell them to return the ECO funding now!

I’ve started the petition “Parliament: Stop the construction of any new nuclear electricity plants in the UK.” and need your help to get it off the ground.

Will you take 30 seconds to sign it right now? Here’s the link:

http://www.change.org/petitions/parliment-stop-the-construction-of-any-new-nuclear-electricity-plants-in-the-uk

Here’s why it’s important:

Nuclear energy is dangerous and a source of pollution and radiation all over the world. The money spent building new nuclear plants can be spent building our renewable energy systems NOW! Stop wasting money on old and dagerous energy and start spending money on our future and our childrens future.

You can sign my petition by clicking here.

Thanks!

The largest problem with nuclear power is that it produces waste products that need to be stored for hundreds or thousands of years in a safe environment. It must be stored in containers that will not leak for hundreds or thousands of years. The political and social changes that occur over these time spans is immense. Finding a way to warn the future generations about this stored waste is at the top of the list of problems facing any government trying to find a storage location. Security of the stored waste is also a problem as this waste has the potential to destroy all life on earth if released into the environment.

This radioactive waste is presenting a big problem for the energy industry. The government of the UK is happy to let nuclear power plants store this dangerous waste on their plant sites until a better location for storage is created. The problem is that no one wants this waste stored in their back yard

Here is an excellent article and a gold mine of information on why we don’t want any new nuclear plants in the UK.

No2NuclearPower:

In January 2013 the Government’s plans to undertake preliminary work on an underground radioactive waste dump were rejected by Cumbria County Council. The county and its western district councils Allerdale and Copeland were the only local authorities in the UK still involved in feasibility studies for a £12bn disposal facility.

Write your MP now and tell them not to waste money on more nuclear power!

I have just seen a posting that must be shared with all interested parties.Visit Peter Lux’s Blog

The Generic Design Assessment (GDA) is a process which was set up in order to examine the designs for new power stations and iron out any flaws in them before the power stations are constructed. The GDA for the European Pressurized Reactor, or EPR, was carried out by the Health and Safety Executive between 2007 and 2012. This is the reactor design chosen for the Hinkley C power station at Hinkley Point in Somerset.

Allowing the regulators to get involved with designers at the earliest stage was supposed to ensure an open and transparent process resulting in several competing designs with all significant design issues fully resolved.

The work was was undertaken in order to prevent the construction problems that have plagued the two reactors currently being built in Europe from being repeated in the UK. The two European Pressurized Reactors (EPR’s) are being built by Areva, a company which, like EDF, is largely owned by the French State.

This mess will not secure our energy future. This new plant design will cost billions more than expected, and still have design flaws that are dangerous to our environment.

Write your MP NOW! and tell them to stop this madness.

I have a number of interviews scheduled for different parts of the book E – Is For Energy. I spend all day Saturday interviewing two representatives of the Stop Hinkley Movement in Somerset. It was a very pleasant experience. The two spokes persons I met had a lot of knowledge regarding the nuclear power issue. I also had a chance to see the hinkley site for the first time.

I will be  organising interviews with the pro nuclear lobby as well. I feel that it is vitally important to have a balanced discussion in order to arrive at the best decision for us all.

I have a film company working on this book project with me. Raccoon Productions is making a documentary about my awakening and book/blog project. They are also filming all my interviews. There  are several hours of film from this weekend. I hope within a week to have some clips up on the net and available for you all to watch.

The papers and news media act as if this plan is set in stone. It is NOT. We have the chance NOW to stop this plan before it gets approval.

Hear what Stop Hinkley C has to say:

Nikki Clark Stop Hinkley spokesperson said “Yesterdays announcement was much ado over nothing and despite all the fanfare and visits of the rich and famous to Hinkley, there is no legally binding agreement, nor will there be until the government get their plans past the European Commission which, according to various media outlets, would be summer 2014 at the earliest.”