Plan highlights our dependence - New nuclear plant for Britain

YESTERDAY’S announcement that Britain will build a €20bn-plus power plant at Hinkley Point will more than likely provoke another of the interminable rounds of anti-nuclear protests. 

Some may even cite Chernobyl as an example of what might go wrong but that is as valid as comparing a spluttering old Trabant, those dreadful Eastern Bloc box cars, with one of today’s hybrid cars that barely needs a driver.

It is, of course, silly to be flippant about the great power and potential for catastrophe inherent in nuclear power generation but in a world where there are 444 nuclear reactors for generating electricity spread over 30 countries the safety record is not unimpressive. Thankfully, there has not been any great calamity other than the one at Japan’ Fukushima plant following a major earthquake and 15-metre tsunami in March 2011.