WHAT’S IN A WORD 3

        John Hutton is Chairman of the Nuclear Industries Association. On August 24th he told the Radio 4 Today audience that  “The nuclear programme is going to be built without any state funding at all”. Sitting next to him in the studio I nearly fell off my […]

APRES MOI LE DELUGE

                    Louis XV’s mordant phrase aptly captures the legacy of the Coalition government’s electricity policy. The new government, whatever its composition, will inherit a policy that achieved a rare feat. It united investors, generators, customers, commentators and environmentalists on energy policy. […]

WHOM THE GODS DESTROY

      Despite frequent headlines suggesting otherwise, EDF has not yet agreed to buy two nuclear reactors from its sister French state-owned company Areva. The British Government has yet to sign a contract to purchase the electricity the reactors will produce. Without that contract EDF will not make the […]

THE POWER OF DREAMS

    This piece first appeared in The Guardian on Thursday 10th July                 It has always been difficult to see what was attractive about the proposed deal with EDF to build a nuclear reactor at Hinkley Point in Somerset. To bring this […]

CHINA NIGHTMARE

  This piece first appeared in Business Green                   The prospect of the Chinese becoming owners, managers and even constructors of nuclear power stations in Britain has caused anxiety in some unexpected places. Both the right and the left, united in their […]

It can’t be easy being George Monbiot

  By Jonathon Porritt  5th December 2013   This article first appeared in Jonathon Porritt’s blog and in The Ecologist The Letter referred to in this article is the one that Jonathon Porritt, Tony Juniper, Charles Secrett and I wrote to David Cameron, highlighting the key economic and political issues with pursuing a pro-nuclear […]

Third or fourth time lucky

  This article first appeared in Business Green October 2013     There is only one decision that really matters about future nuclear reactor building in Britain and that has not yet been taken. From the amount of media hoopla surrounding the announcement on Hinkley C you could be forgiven […]

BEHIND THE NUCLEAR SMOKE AND MIRRORS

              There is an important question to be asked of Mr Davey. If there is no public subsidy for Hinkley C why are you having to make an application to the Brussels for state aids clearance? The most important decision in this issue is […]

The Independent View: No real choice on nuclear

  This article was written for the Liberal Democrat Voice and first appeared on their website.                       By Tom Burke | Mon 9th September 2013 – 8:45 am   Atoms are not the only fission products of nuclear power. This is […]