The Chinese are coming

It could have surprised no one when RWE Npower and E.On announced their withdrawal from Horizon Nuclear Power - how could the Germans have faced down opposition to their plans when the German Government had withdrawn from nuclear at home. More to the point the Germans just don't have the money to invest in us - it's all going to prop up the economies of Greece, Spain and the other southern states of the Eurozone. Germany might change its mind on its own membership of the Eurozone but that probably would make sufficient funds available to invest in nuclear outside Germany.

For those of us who are supportive of nuclear as an environmentally and, in the longer-term, commercially sound means of generating power it seemed that we would be doomed to a future of nimbies squabbling over wind turbines, incinerators, barrages ... none of which on their own stand any chance of meeting our energy needs.

So it is fascinating to read in The Gazette today that

The Areva group and China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corporation (CGNPC) group announced this week they would bid for the Horizon project in Shepperdine, as well as its other site at Wylfa on Anglesey in North Wales.

A large scale investment by the Chinese makes incredible sense - they are amongst the few nations in the world who have capital and we need it if we are to rescue our dwindling sources of electricity.

Or should we go big time for power stations fuelled by gas? There is definitely oil shale beneath Thornbury. Whether or not it holds significant quantities of gas to be commercially viable remains to be proved. The only certainty is that the nimbies will be out in force, ears to the ground listening for rumbles and noses to the tap sniffing for gas!