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Nuclear: a toxic investment
Nuclear: a toxic investment
With RWE, E.ON and now GDF Suez getting cold feet about UK projects, has the nuclear renaissance turned radioactive?
Terry Macalister guardian.co.uk, Monday 16 April 2012 15.31 EDT
And then there was one. Well, we are not there yet, but there is no doubt the comments from the GDF Suez boss that his NuGen consortium wants more financial concessions to build atomic plants in Britain is not a casual warning but a threat that it could pull out, leaving EDF the only company willing to build new reactors.
The great atomic renaissance is certainly unraveling. Critics always said it did not make financial sense, and indeed it seems it is basic economics that is undermining the project rather than environmental worries.
When the German-based utilities RWE and E.ON said last month that they were scrapping their involvement in new atomic plants at Wylfa in Wales and Oldbury in Gloucestershire, things looked rocky for the government. GDF – formerly Gaz de France – said at the time it was proceeding as usual with its plans to build a facility close to the Sellafield site in Cumbria.
But on Monday Gérard Mestrallet, the chief executive of GDF, made clear that the current regime outlined by the government would not justify its plans for a new facility at Sellafield in Cumbria.
With RWE, E.ON and now GDF Suez getting cold feet about UK projects, has the nuclear renaissance turned radioactive?
Terry Macalister guardian.co.uk, Monday 16 April 2012 15.31 EDT
And then there was one. Well, we are not there yet, but there is no doubt the comments from the GDF Suez boss that his NuGen consortium wants more financial concessions to build atomic plants in Britain is not a casual warning but a threat that it could pull out, leaving EDF the only company willing to build new reactors.
The great atomic renaissance is certainly unraveling. Critics always said it did not make financial sense, and indeed it seems it is basic economics that is undermining the project rather than environmental worries.
When the German-based utilities RWE and E.ON said last month that they were scrapping their involvement in new atomic plants at Wylfa in Wales and Oldbury in Gloucestershire, things looked rocky for the government. GDF – formerly Gaz de France – said at the time it was proceeding as usual with its plans to build a facility close to the Sellafield site in Cumbria.
But on Monday Gérard Mestrallet, the chief executive of GDF, made clear that the current regime outlined by the government would not justify its plans for a new facility at Sellafield in Cumbria.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/apr/16/nuclear-renaissance-toxic