Looking westward from Penarth pier I see the massive bulk of Hinkley Point atomic power station, towering over the Somerset countryside. Very impressive - and controversial.
Britain led the way in civil nuclear projects with the opening of Calder Hall in 1956, decommissioned in 2003. Over the years five more sites built, at one time meeting 20 percent of the country ‘s power needs.
Hinkley Point is being built by the French firm EDF which operates Britain’s five atomic sites. Its cost, original estimate, £18billion, but it is already £5billion over budget.
Due to open in 2026 it is running late, partly due to the pandemic. More problematical is its likely value in Britain’s search for green power, compared with other energy developments includIng solar farms and off and on shore wind turbines.
Prime minister Johnson has no doubt about its importance, unlike some other countries including Germany.
He is so confident that he has just announced the building of another eight major atomic power stations over the next thirty years.
I have my doubts. Just think of some of his other fanciful ideas that never got off the ground, or under the sea - the massive airport in the Thames estuary and the tunnel linking England with Ireland. Pie in the sky, said the experts.
Equally nebulous is the Severn Barrage scheme, a much more realistic major project now belatedly championed by Richard Gove.
Inevitably, expensive long term schemes risk being abandoned and the latest pipe dreaming may end the same way, by which time Mr Johnson will be long gone from power.
atomic power station
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