Of course, behind the apparent nationalism, was that age-old hatred environmentalists have for all things nuclear. Sometimes I get the impression that they'd rather have the world sink into climate chaos than permit nuclear energy to have a role in stopping it.
I heard a fine example of this on our local radio station this morning: There is a nuclear power station on the south coast called Dungeness B. It is set to stop generating in 2015, with the loss of hundreds of jobs. Needless to say the locals want the government to consider Dungeness as part of it's program of building new nuclear stations. The government have said "no" on environmental grounds but the locals, including politicians are keeping up the pressure.
The local station interviewed someone from Friends of the Earth about this and I had to laugh at her comments. She was convinced we had no need for nuclear at all (sound familiar?), it could all be done with wind turbines and solar. What?! Oh yes, let's replace reliable, round-the-clock 'base-load' power with ones that stop at night (solar) or when the wind drops.
Much as I like the idea of clean energy, the technology has not reached the point where it can supply more than 20 to 25% of the UK's energy needs without causing serious problems. If we don't use nuclear then that commits us to using fossils fuels (Gas and coal mainly) because any other renewable energy capable of providing base-load (like biomass) is unlikely to provide the amount of energy required.
In other words, running the UK on nothing but solar and wind is wishful thinking.
This is why some environmentalists are beginning to advocate nuclear, much to the horror of their fellow greens. Nuclear may not be ideal but it may be the only option we have to replace all those coal and gas power stations on a quick enough timescale.
(UPDATE: Here's a later post that discusses a form of nuclear power that overcomes nearly all the problems of traditional forms).
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