Bradwell-on-Sea is earmarked to be home to a new nuclear power station. As Britain has promised to reduce carbon emission, developing more nuclear power stations is now essential. We cannot create adequate electricity from wind farms and after years to trying to enhance tidal energy the technology is still not available.
Ed Miliband, the Government Energy and Climate secretary, has produced a draft National Policy Statement which discusses the requirement to develop more nuclear energy to allow for the reduction of carbon emissions.
The new Bradwell nuclear power station is just one of 10 different proposals set to help the UK meet its climate change agreements.
In a world where North Sea reserves are declining, a more diverse low carbon energy is a more secure energy mix, less vulnerable to fluctuations in the availability of and on fuel. In exploiting new technologies, we can also lock green jobs and growth, not carbon, into the UK’s future energy sector.” Miliband, Energy and Climate Secretary.
EDF Energy is positive about this announcement. They own the Bradwell site that will be used if the nuclear power station gets the go-ahead.
Climate change is a real threat to the UK. A rise in sea levels will see huge parts of the country, including much of East Anglia and the London estuary, permanently flooded. If we do not lead by example in reducing carbon emissions, who will follow? What will be the fate of the British Isles if sea temperatures rise by 2 degrees,
For more information visit www.british-energy.com.
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I read the above article with interest. I am the Secretary of the Blackwater Against New Nuclear Group and, as you can imagine, we have severe doubts about the suitability of the Bradwell site for a new mega nuclear power station. The site is increasingly liable to flooding and storm surges. It is important to understand that not only would there be a new power station but also a high-level radioactive spent fuel store on the site for around 160 years from the start of operations. In fact, such stores will be on each of the new sites – 10 of them dotted around the English coast (one in Wales).
Unfortunately, there is no national repository (and may never be) and Sellafield will no longer take the high-level waste. A new mega power station would require vast quantities of cooling water to be taken from the shallow Blackwater estuary and British Energy has estimated that the outfall of this water would increase the temperature of the sea around Bradwell by 10 degrees C and that around Mersea Island by 1-2 degrees C.
You ask in the article what would be the fate of the British Isles if sea temperature rose by 1 – 2 degrees. The estimated rise in temperature in the Blackwater would have a devastating effect on the world-famous Colchester Native Oyster and other marine life. The Sustainable Development Commission has said that doubling the current capacity of nuclear energy would cut carbon emissions by only 8%.