Nuclear reaction

Jennifer Tracey | 06:02 UK time, Saturday, 14 November 2009

Listener mock-up of nuclear power site in Kirksanton

Earlier this week, alongside wave, wind and what's called clean coal power stations, the government gave the go ahead for 10 new nuclear facilities and a new planning system.

There was a mixed reaction from listeners who emailed, but there were two that caught our eye and we invited their authors onto the programme to discuss it.

Patrick McCarron is a retired lawyer who's been a strong supporter of nuclear power since the 1950s. He's frustrated it's taken the Government so long to give nuclear the go-ahead.

Sally Millar lives near Kirksanton, one of the proposed sites. She's been talking about climate change as an environmental educator for the last 20 years. (She mocked up the photo above to show what her neighbourhood might look like.)

Here's what happened when we brought them together...

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Comments

1. At 09:50am on 14 Nov 2009, bankingballs wrote:
Over 98% of all the electricity on this planet that is used by man is generated one way, what is that way?

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2. At 10:25am on 14 Nov 2009, bankingballs wrote:
I had a feeling you didn't know, if you did perhaps these energy debates would be a little more wider than wind, wave nuclear, clean coal, et al.

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3. At 10:28am on 14 Nov 2009, bankingballs wrote:
Well, almost et al - there's a clue.

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4. At 12:40pm on 14 Nov 2009, steelpulse wrote:
This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
5. At 10:44pm on 14 Nov 2009, obamaspend wrote:
Honestly, I think we should build more clean high-output nuclear plants. I know Obama doesn't like it, but what good is he going to do with CAP & Trade? I just don't think taxing everybody do death is the right answers. Your guys thoughts?

Derek
Obama Spending Blog

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6. At 5:16pm on 15 Nov 2009, curiousman wrote:
There is no choice; no decision to make. In the UK we have to derive our baseline energy needs from nuclear fuel. This has been done in France where a sensible government grasped this nettle many years ago. Nuclear power stations need not be big and ugly. For example there is one in the beautiful Loire valley (near Chinon) which is a small futuristic-looking group of buildings well merged into the local countyside. Of course the French government understand the need as their decision-makers have a much stronger technical understanding. They also have about 200 years' worth of uranium ore in the Limousin region (source Michelin guide for that region) and so are largely independent of oil from unstable states. I believe we sold/gave the French the designs for nuclear power stations some time ago; perhaps we should buy them back!

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7. At 10:42am on 16 Nov 2009, bankingballs wrote:
Not a heavily subscribed blog this, and those who read it don't seem to be much concerned how electricity is generated - no wonder the UK's portion of world patents is falling.

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8. At 1:00pm on 16 Nov 2009, Lord Nathan wrote:
- "In the UK we have to derive our baseline energy needs from nuclear fuel."
Great! We hitch our fortunes to a limited resource of which we possess virtually none!

Smart thinking, Ace.

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9. At 09:52am on 18 Nov 2009, bankingballs wrote:
I bet Eddie Mair doesn't know how over 98% of the electricity used by mankind is generated. I bet nobody on the ipm team knows either. Let's just stay in the box and not bother to have an original thought, that's was makes the UK tick now.

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The programme that starts with its listeners. Join daily discussions online and contribute ideas for a weekly programme presented by Eddie Mair and Jennifer Tracey.