Quote:
Originally Posted by Lancsbreaker
Living in the North-West, not too far from the Cuadrilla fracking test site, I was pleased to hear that consideration is being given to again testing our ability to access the huge gas reserves in the Bowland shale - but irritated beyond measure by the cries of "but that'll do nothing to keep us supplied this year".....
Of course it won't, but a large reason we have the problems we have now are because of political short-termism in regard to infrastructure planning - cf Clegg dismissing the plans for more nuclear power 10 years or so ago, "because it wouldn't be ready until the 2020s....."
Arguably what we need now are small-scale modular nuclear reactors, such as Rolls-Royce have planned, which can be delivered in relatively small timescales and deployed near the point of need thus lowering distribution network demand. And fracking!
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Agree with all of that.
I would like our new political leadership to have a strategic plan to take back control (I think I have heard that phrase somewhere before…..) of some of our strategic industries instead of offshoring a lot of things.
As for small scale modular nuclear reactors, the RN has been using Roll-Royce built small nuclear reactors for approx 60 years, and i have often said that we should have dozens of similar ones on land to both provide power and lower the unit cost of the ones being used at sea!