EDF’s Purchase of British Energy

At Last: Some really, Really Good News

Date 24/09/2008

The Right Side

Garry White

Reading the newspaper every morning has been pretty depressing. Every day the news seems to get worse. It’s enough to put me off my breakfast.

Until today.

Finally we have some good news. The right thing has been done to secure Britain’s future prosperity. We should all be pleased.

I am talking about EDF’s purchase of British Energy.

The painfully protracted discussions have been concluded. The world’s top nuclear power expert is now a major player in Britain’s Energy plan. This news is wonderful… and I have an unusual way to invest in the nuclear revolution. I’ll tell you about that in a moment.

Our North Sea oil is almost used up. We need to find a way to produce clean, green energy. If we don’t, we will have to buy Russian gas – at whatever price the Kremlin wants to charge.

By 2012, the last of our Magnox nuclear reactors will be closed. A number of older coal-fired stations may also have been shut down, especially if Greenpeace have their way.

Demand is expected to overtake supply somewhere between 2012 and 2015, creating a serious generation gap. There is a real chance that the lights could go out within the next 5 years.

An economy without energy is a dead economy. It brings strife, political turmoil and poverty. This is where Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace are trying to lead us.

The environmentals have already cost us vital time and damaged our future prosperity. They have delayed our new energy strategy in the courts and at places like Kingsnorth power station.

They will try any legal means to try and stop the new generation of plants being built. We cannot let a misguided dogma damage Britain’s wealth.

Vive la France

We are lucky to have the French onboard. Very lucky.

France generates 79% of its energy from nuclear power and has some of the best nuclear engineers in the world. We have a skills shortage that is getting more acute by the day.

Despite the opening of a nuclear skills academy in Cumbria and new plans for a National Nuclear Laboratory, we don’t have enough engineers.

On 12 August, Bill Macdonald of the Health & Safety Executive Nuclear Directorate said:

"We have a real demographic problem because 40% of our staff are over the age of 60. We are struggling to get enough specialists; you can’t train them from nothing. If it takes longer, it takes longer. The [nuclear] programme will be put back; the government don’t like it."

That’s why we need the French… and why we need them now.

One argument that Greenpeace uses against nuclear power is that it is too expensive. I disagree. I think the costs of living in an energy-poor nation will be significantly worse than the cost of building and operating new power stations.

In the next issue of my Smart Commodities newsletter, which comes out on Saturday, I am recommending a company that looks set to slash the cost of uranium enrichment. This process makes up around 30% of the operational costs of running a nuclear power station. This makes the economics of the nuclear revival much more acceptable.

Click here to sign up to my service and discover which company I am talking about

Garry White
Editor
Smart Commodities UK

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