tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3653076503390223739.post3896157917572527051..comments2024-01-14T22:20:03.303-08:00Comments on Dave Toke's green energy blog: Problems with French nuclear plant could spell final end of Hinkley C projectDr David Tokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00320320595200443205noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3653076503390223739.post-24055628342048544592018-04-27T03:55:11.571-07:002018-04-27T03:55:11.571-07:00Dr T
Glad for your brief reply to Adam A.
Turns of...Dr T<br />Glad for your brief reply to Adam A.<br />Turns of phrase like 'abject nonsense' and 'pathetic product' ring odd bells for me.<br />'Nuclear' is full of surmises, but it seems true enough that its capital costs have been increasing while those of renewables have decreased, does it not?<br /><br />The Chief Engineer who rescued I think Dungeness construction back in the day said if I remember. it was like watch making on a vast scale in the open air. And delays at Flamanville seem to bear that out to this day. <br /><br />As I say, full of surmises. I find use of terms 'MWh' without reference to time-scales pretty meaningless. and concepts of comparative 'lifetimes' contain all sorts of surmises. I know some of us wonder about future economic and physical capability to cope with nuclear structures more than 5 decades down the line. Sellafield still hangs over us. <br /> philsharrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16992266289232459952noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3653076503390223739.post-5756739909176312132018-04-21T10:41:30.605-07:002018-04-21T10:41:30.605-07:00So I guess all this explains why, since 2000, the ...So I guess all this explains why, since 2000, the UK share of electricity from renewables has gone up from 3% to 30 per cent - while the share of nuclear power has fallen and doesn't seem likely to increase at least for many years to come?Dr David Tokehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00320320595200443205noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3653076503390223739.post-46749681251920714512018-04-21T07:38:15.925-07:002018-04-21T07:38:15.925-07:00Conflating the problems at Flamanville with improb...Conflating the problems at Flamanville with improbable delays at Hinkley [learning-curver and all that] smacks of being anti-nuclear for the sake of it. {Pointing out the,at least, 2 year Fukushima hiatus for all npps in build and the imminent commissioning of Taishan 1 would have shown more balance: http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/NN-Fuel-loading-under-way-at-Chinese-EPR-1104184.html<br /><br />Arguing that the UK's 'New Nuclear' programme is uneconomic compared to renewables is abject nonsense, for the simple reason that the 'best' of renewables - wind power - uses 20X more metals and 10X more concrete per MWh generated than does nuclear power.<br /><br />It would take 970 of the very latest and 'best' 9.5 MW offshore wind turbines to generate 7% of the UK's electricity demand every year - albeit of the grid-degrading, intermittent variety. With a [hoped for] lifespan of 25 years, the capital cost would be £17,460 million.<br /><br />Hinkley, on the other hand, will generate grid-friendly, 24/7 electricity, at a capital cost of £18,000 million - but for the 60 years of its design life, with a high probability of a life extension to 80, or even 100 years.<br /><br />So that 9,215 MW of offshore wind turbines would have to be built a 2nd time and be 10 years into the 3rd build before 60 years of intermittent electricity was generated. That's a factor of X 2.4, a total of 22,116 MW and tots up to a capital cost of £41,904 million - 2.3X more than the capital cost of Hinkley.<br /><br />Appealing to true environmentalists out there: wasting valuable investment capital on renewables needs to be considered alongside the unnecessary use of essential metal, concrete and other resources. A need to think about the wasted oil, coal, gas and manpower going into mining, quarrying, transport, smelting, manufacturer and installation those metals and the CO2 released in the cement manufacture for the concrete. Add on top of this, the environmental, ecosystem and species destruction that accompanies all of these unnecessary steps along the way to delivering a quite pathetic product - intermittent electricity.Adam Antatheisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11577346163046837387noreply@blogger.com