Studio Brief 4 News Story Summary

The Hinkley Power Plant

Hinkley Point C will be the first power station to be Built in the UK since Sizewell B.

The Government promise that this £16bn nuclear deal will supply nearly 25,000 jobs and 900 permanent jobs in the plant, it will also bring down energy bills. The China National Nuclear Corporation and China Nuclear Power Group will be investing 40 to 30% into the scheme and French company EDF will be investing 35 to 40% into the project. The power station will have a 60 year operating life.

In theory the deal will increase productivity. Both businesses and the consumers will benefit from the lower energy bills as it will decrease costs for businesses, increase households disposable income. However as it is a long run project it is all very unstable and nothing can be guaranteed.

Benefits of the deal:

• Lower energy prices. This week four of the major energy suppliers; Npower, SSE, British Gas and EDF have all put up gas prices by about 10%. Leaving millions to struggle to afford heating this winter. Not at all matching the 2.7 CPI  inflation (September 2013). Lower energy prices from the nuclear scheme will bring in some competition and will lower prices across the board.
• The Scheme will create a lot of jobs, reducing unemployment in the UK, which is currently sitting at 7.7% and 1.35 million people are receiving job seekers allowance. 
• At full capacity the two reactors could provide up to 7% of the countries energy needs. Ed Davey, The Energy Secretary estimated that 6,000 onshore turbines would be needed to generate as much power as Hinkley Point. 
• The project Will carbon emissions in the UK by 9million tonnes a year. 
• It will create a long term security of supply in the UK. 

The disadvantages of the deal:

• Around 80% of the plant will be invested in by foreign companies, two Chinese companies and EDF which is French.  Between £800m to £1bn a year, that the UK tax payers and energy consumers will be putting into the pockets of the French and Chinese corporations. It sounds like a MNC (multinational company) they will take the profits overseas and leave damage in the host country.
• There will be an increase in the risk of terrorism. Not only to the plant, but to its transport (rail, road and sea). If a nuclear waste train was involved in a terrorist attack, tens of thousands of people could be exposed to cancer from the radiation. 
• There is no safe way to deal with radioactive waste. The government plans to burry it deep underground. Waste may leak back into the environment, contamination the water supplies and the food chain. 
• The risk of an accident. I did some research into the Chernobly disaster in Ukraine1989 and the Fukushima Daiichi accident in Japan 2011 due to the tsunami. During the Chernobly accident 400 times more radioactive waste was realised than from the atom bombing in Hiroshima. After the spill there was an increate in mutations among both animals and human, there was also a large increate in cancer from the radiation.