By a quirk of fate I went to Dungeness yesterday partly to photograph the nuclear power station there which is closing down. You never know when a picture of it might be topical, thought I, and this story broke last night so it suddenly became very topical.
The sad fact is that we dont seem to have the know-how to build our own nuclear power stations in this country any more. We rely on foreign expertise which is a sad state to be in. The two German ones mentioned RWE and E-on no longer see building nuclear power stations here in the UK as viable. The nuclear power stations closing in Germany, is effecting and will effect their projected bank balance, and they no longer want to finance projects in the UK...basically because the return on the huge investment needed takes way too long in the case of Nuclear Power.
In the case of Dungeness, the power stations there are being decomissioned. The Government see the location as too risky to invest in a new station on site, due say HMG to the threat of flooding mostly...this thinking following on from the Tsunami in Japan. But this is not a case of NIMBYism, a disease which so often blights local development...the people in the surrounding areas want the station to continue, it has been there in one shape or another since the 1950's, it offers jobs in a low employment area...and of course generates local power on a grand scale.
And here she is...basking in yesterdays sunshine..
This shot below of the daffodils.. taken in the shadow of Nuclear Power, shows how normal life carries on in its immediate wake.