Nuclear decline
SIR – Matthew Lynn gives an optimistic view of Britain’s place in the fusion power race (“Britain can be a nuclear fusion superpower if we don’t blow it”, Comment, January 7). He quite rightly points to previous failures to capitalise on leads in nuclear power.
However, I take issue with him over the causes of us falling behind in the past 30 years. The Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) learnt the lessons of the 1950s and 1960s, when contracts were placed with several consortiums to build advanced gas-cooled reactor stations. They all independently tried to design, build and commission stations and they all failed. The CEGB had to create a research and development department to salvage the stations, which they did at great cost and with varying degrees of success. They also realised that a future programme required not only technical expertise but also the ability to manage large, complex projects.
After a few false starts, a very successful design and construction department emerged. The model was to provide overall design and control, with the work being done by contractors. They settled on a pressurised water reactor design, which used a well-tried Westinghouse reactor. Construction started on Sizewell B in 1988 and the station went on line in 1995 – built to time and within budget. Ironically it is now owned by EDF Energy, which has a reputation for not building stations in France to time or budget.
Sizewell B was the prototype of what was planned as a series of stations to be built over the following two decades, mainly on sites with existing nuclear licences. Replicating the design would have been cost-effective both in construction and running. If this had happened we would now have a large, basic, carbon-free generating capacity, protected from international fuel costs.
Unfortunately Margaret Thatcher thought she knew better. The programme was scrapped, the CEGB was disbanded and subsequently private companies were encouraged to produce electricity by burning our natural gas supplies. As Mr Lynn says, Tony Blair failed to reverse the trend, but the cost to the taxpayer would have been huge, and the knowledge and organisation had been lost.
Gordon Dennett
Fareham, Hampshire