The EU is fracturing over energy, and not a day too soon…
Signs of hope. Just as Germany recently pulled the pin on the EU’s Electric Vehicle mandate, France is now threatening to scupper the EU’s new Renewable Energy Directive unless they include a role for nuclear power. It was supposed to be signed off on Wednesday. Despite nuclear being the only reliable baseload source of “Net Zero” energy, France has had to fight for its inclusion at every step.
France is gathering 16 European nations into a Nuclear Alliance
France’s Minister for Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, brought together her counterparts from member countries of the Nuclear Alliance on 16 May at the Ministry for Energy Transition. A total of 16 countries were represented. In addition to the host country, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia and Sweden, plus Italy with observer status, were represented. The UK was present as a guest country.
“Nuclear power may provide up to 150 GW of electricity capacity by 2050 to the European Union (vs roughly 100 GW today),” the statement says. “This represents the equivalent of up to 30 to 45 new-build large reactors and small modular reactors in the EU and such new projects would also ensure that the current share of 25% electricity production be maintained in the EU for nuclear energy.”
Nuclear energy generates electricity in 14 of the 27 EU Member States, and currently provides 25% of Europe’s electricity and 50% of its low carbon electricity.
We know this matters because Team-Renewables are angry
EU countries slam ‘crazy’ France for taking renewables legislation ‘hostage’
Victor Jack, Politico
“France is crazy, ”said a diplomat from one EU country, who requested anonymity to speak candidly about country dynamics, adding that there was “a lot” of anger at Paris “from all sides.”
BRUSSELS — Anger at France boiled over on Wednesday as EU countries accused Paris of taking a key piece of EU climate legislation “hostage” at the last minute to extract further concessions in the text.
EU ambassadors were due to sign off on the Renewable Energy Directive on Wednesday, an integral part of the bloc’s flagship Fit for 55 climate package that aims to slash greenhouse gases by 55 percent by 2030 and ramp up the share of renewables in the EU’s energy mix to 42.5 percent.
Ostensibly, France is asking for its industrial production of ammonia to be partially exempted from meeting green hydrogen targets, according to three diplomats. But that could also be a front for extracting further demands, including on nuclear, they said.
“This is the Renewable Energy Directive, not the Nuclear Energy Directive ” fumed one diplomat, apparently forgetting that the aim was meant to be “low carbon”, not just jobs for the Renewables-Boys.
They’re supposed to be rescuing the world from CO2 aren’t they?
Meanwhile in Finland a Newly-Launched Nuclear Plant Sees Electricity Prices Plunge By 75%
Thomas Brooke, ReMix
The Olkiluoto 3 (OL3) nuclear plant completed the transition from testing to regular output last month to become Finland’s first new nuclear plant in more than four decades. It is expected to produce up to 15 percent of the country’s power demand.
And while the plant’s production is still in its early days, its launch has had a considerable effect on Finland’s energy prices, lowering the electricity spot price in the country from €245.98 per megawatt-hour (MWh) in December to €60.55 per MWh in April, a reduction of more than 75 percent, according to physical electricity exchange, Nord Pool.
h/t to @NetZeroWatch
Excellent news!
But how to transplant that new understanding into the brains of our renewable politicians? Seduced by the renewables lobby with promises of moolah come election time, and board room jobs when retirement hits. And possibly more.
If I was Dutton, I’d have an advert everyday in the metro tabloids spruiking the latest news and a poliie each day in parliament reading it out.
Don’t rely on journalists getting out the nuclear news ….and linking it to defence wouldn’t do any harm either. Energy independence is critical to national defence.
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And he should be spruiking that 75% reduction in Finland too.
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The media, both printed & electronic will NOT under any circumstances publicise anything but the RENEWABLES narrative.
Oh to have FOX NEWS come to Australia. SKY NEWS does make an effort but it’s limited by the numbers who subscribe to cable TV.
Dutton needs to move to have nuclear manufacturers start surveys here & provide updates on progress which are openly made public thru Question Time in Parliament.
The coalition needs to be ready to launch the construction of at least 2 nuclear facilities within 12 months of being re-elected. Cut subsidies to renewables & EVs completely within 2 years. We want action…..not words!
We’ll be shocked by the rush of other countries to follow our lead!
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SKY NEWS is free to air. Channel 53 in NSW.
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Also free if you have a Samsung smart television set. You know, household moving picture thingamajig.
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Yes Skynews is free to air and i understand that it is now the top rated news service in regional Australia
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Sky News Regional is free to air in Victoria (Nth Central) on Channel 56.
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” But how to transplant that new understanding into the brains of our renewable politicians?”. We have been taken over cunningly and stealthily by the ultra orthodox Green leftist brigade. The following is an example of what Happens to a civilisation when the loony zealots take over. Here is a moderate Muslim academic commenting on the downfall and impoverishment of a once great and powerful civilisation. “Primarily because Muslims stopped learning and improving themselves. People became afraid to think, worried thinking for themselves may lead them to arrive at a conclusion which might be deemed to be unorthodox. Muslims assumed all the thinking had been done for them, and all we need to do is follow what the previous scholars have said. When that happened, we stopped growing, and eventually Islamic Civilization died.” This exactly what is happening to us as we watch, without fighting back to save ourselves.
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“This is the renewable energy directive….” fumed one diplomat, in a dimly lit room.
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The indignation and outrage from media sources is typical. They will kiCk and scream all the way to protect their subsidized pets.
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As someone living in France, it’s hard to be too positive about this, but I guess even a small step in the right direction is still a step.
France might be trying to claw its way back to being energy rich, but it has left it very late in the game. Electricity prices are sky high despite taxpayer funded attempts to control it, and new nuclear development is many years away from agitating electrons in homes. Admittedly, the rot had set in well before Macron arrived on the scene, but he has had about 6 years to do something definitive about it, and chose not to, until very recently.
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Not only that James but for some strange reason they tried the green way and we got bird choppers springing up on the low ground at the foot of the mountains. The problem is that every tome I go down to the coast they are not turning – at the moment Gridwatch for France is showing wind producing only 5.23% of requirements.
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Conservatives and fellow rational thinkers need to understand that this is NOT an argument about logic.
The specific objective of those driving the “renewables” policy, the Elites, is to shut down the reliable energy supply and to dramatically reduce the standard of living in the West (of non-Elites), and to remove what few freedoms we have left such as the freedom of personal mobility in a private motor vehicle (for non-Elites).
You will have a small amount of electricity with unreliables, but it will be severely rationed and usage will be monitored via your compulsory electricity “smart” meter and you will have compulsory battery storage at home to grab the small amount of power generated as it randomly comes down the power line. They will let you have enough power for limited night time lighting, an Internet connected device to receive Government propaganda and for Big Brother to spy on you (Telescreen), a small amount of power to cook your daily ration of insects and gruel and no heating or cooling.
There is a vast slave army of useful idiots of the Left helping promote this madness; the naive, the uneducated, the idle, the pretend “academics”, political ideologues, “greens”, the ignorant, those living on the public purse, the gullible, simpletons, etc..
Fundamentally, this is a fight for freedom, not the engineering absurdity and infeasiblity of trying to run an industrial civilisation on random, diffuse energy sources (which started to be abandoned over 300 years ago when Newcomen first developed a commercially viable steam engine).
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I have been saying for at least 15 years that the global warming scam and the fake remedy was part of the communist plan to destroy the West. They could not do it with bombs and bullets so used trees and cuddly animals to do it for them. It is no coincidence that one of the great generals in this war was a communist masquerading as a green democrat coming from East Germany to lead West Germany and the united Germany. Merkel did great damage to the West and her policies continue to do so. Even as she left the stage Klaus Schwarb took up the guidon and gathered some adherents all of whom are fabulously wealthy socialists. I am surprised that so many politicians were beguiled by an obvious scam and as a result have cost us billions to achieve the destruction of the West’s dominance of manufacturing and innovation.
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“There is a vast slave army of useful idiots of the Left helping promote this madness; the naive, the uneducated, the idle, the pretend “academics”, political ideologues, “greens”, the ignorant, those living on the public purse, the gullible, simpletons, etc..”
In OZ that would be all the labor greens voters.
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“In OZ that would be all the labor greens voters.”
Which, if recent elections are to be believed, make up a majority today.
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You are spot on, David.
I have always thought Al Gore’s movie was named “An Inconvenient Truth” because he knew it was really “A Convenient Fiction.”
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This sort of fits here (IMO)
“Saskatchewan will not attempt the impossible regarding Net Zero by 2035”
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2023/05/17/saskatchewan-will-not-attempt-the-impossible-regarding-net-zero-by-2035/
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Until the present time, the only attempt since Newcomen developed a practical steam engine in 1712, to introduce random energy production by a group of capitalism-hating and people-hating Elites was by the National Socialists. This is documented by Rupert Darwall in “Green Tyranny: Exposing the Totalitarian Roots of the Climate Industrial Complex”.
And so, here we are repeating history.
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What’s happened to gs supplies in Europe?
Or doesn’t that matter until next winter?
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There’s hope? No there’s not. This is just a pea under the mattress. Blackout in Lake Macquarie yesterday morning – about 38,000 homes/businesses affected. No explanation, nothing to see here.
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We need more & longer blackouts to drive the rejection of the Albanese / Bowen insanity!
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But why use TOXIC, unreliable W & S at all?
Even 5% of this lunacy stuffs up the electricity grids and have to be replaced every 15 years (wind) if sited in offshore locations and then torn down and dumped into landfill forever.
The mined materials to build W & S are limited and are sourced from places like the Congo and remote locations in China etc.
To start new mining of such materials in OECD countries will only force up the price and GUARANTEE much higher costs for electricity + idiotic EVs forever.
Modular Nukes are probably the best bet for Aussies, but in the interim we should be maintaining our Coal power stns for decades into the future and stop building the TOXIC W & S rubbish ASAP.
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Wind turbine blades don’t have to go to landfill.
Now they want to dump them into the ocean…
And yet they keep lying to us and telling us they “care” for the environment. I have never seen a Leftist do voluntary work for the environment yet, such as rubbish removal or invasive species removal from National Parks.
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“artificial reefs especially for offshore wind turbine with massive blades.”
So, suddenly, plastics in the ocean are no longer a problem ? !
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Especially with BPA in the resin? Doesn’t sound like a good idea.
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Graeme:
BPA has been used (as epoxy phenolic resins) since the early 1950’s – possibly earlier but that was a far as I could go back many years ago- as a coating for tin plate for food storage (except tomato products**). The epoxy didn’t degraded in alkaline conditions and the phenolic stood up to acid conditions, so food would last. I’ve not known of any problems.
This was later used as a can lining for aluminium cans e.g. Coca Cola as an acid product.
In Australia the can lining was switched to a water-based lining but still containing some BPA in 1982. I haven’t been looking for these cunnent situation for the last 20 years but I think this would still be the case.
The BPA was based on polycarbonate plastics which could be degraded very quickly once the bacteria worked through the end units, and then could degrade it to BPA.
As for the turbine blades the earliest were polyester based without any BPA. The later blades had to have higher strength so epoxy resin is used. I haven’t seen any evidence that it degrades that quickly enough to make a health situation.
**Tomato juice & fruit used to react with unlinged tin plate which people got used to, and complained when the coatings actually left the taste alone.
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Any idea of their buoyancy?
Cheers
Dave B
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Just fill ’em up with more CO2 created concrete. 😉
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Hi Neville,
And, as Mark Mills shows most recently at:
https://media4.manhattan-institute.org/wp-content/uploads/Testimony_House_Energy_Mills_4-26-2023.pdf
the production of these “renewables” requires vast amounts of CO2-emitting fossil fuels, emitting far more CO2 than that allegedly offset.
It’s so easy for Western governments to avoid the necessary energy and materials accounting when the wind turbines and solar panels are fully imported from elsewhere.
Best regards,
Paul Miskelly
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Farmers only persisted with windmills because they pumped into a tank and it didn’t matter if the wind didn’t blow for a couple of days, and there wasn’t a practical alternative available in the early days.
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There was even in the 1920’s in the USA rural areas where water was readily available, a way to generate electricity. The hydro unit would charge the farmhouse batteries and the spent water was sent to the animal troughs (along with any over flow from the tank).
It was abandoned in the 1930’s as rural areas were given mains electricity.
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Right Neville you covered it. +100%
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The new science based Clintel report has tried to expose all the BS and FRAUD in the IPCC reports and their latest 6th report is the longest and the worst.
Andy May explains the modelling behind these reports and the problems with their so called science.
He shows their data fudging that has been exposed by Dr Christy, Dr McKitrick, Dr Happer, Steve McIntyre, Dr Frederick Seitz etc over the decades and also reminds us of the problem of trying to model clouds.
Unbelievable nonsense included in these IPCC reports and YET they still BELIEVE?
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/05/16/is-ar6-the-worst-and-most-biased-ipcc-report/
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At least as important is the intellectual subterfuge of deliberately ignoring authors’ work which does not fit IPCC purposes. This Clintel does especially well. The problem is not confined to so-called climate science but permeates, if it doesn’t control, all intellectual disciplines.
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Quoting Gad Saad:
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Here in Europe the communists , socialists ,liberals ,green fascists , academia are all in into the green deal ,banning CO2 , a by-product of human effort and activity .This is sheer madness , sorcery and quacking at an outrageous level ,but nearly 2/3 of the popuplation is strongly believing this crap . At the moment the economy of the whole of europe is contracting much like the crisis of the 1920s and 1930s . At the present pace we shall be poor beggars long before the green deal will be fully implemented . Together with printing massive amounts of euros ,our fiat-money better to be named fiasco-money and with a huge influx of undisciplined masses out of africa and asia our societies will be destroyed like south-africa ,where murder and robbery are sanctioned by its mainstream politicical parties.
Hopefully the french will be able to shoot a hole in the green-deal fabric with the supportof half the eu countries and reality may sink in . For the rest we remain fighting against zealots with very deep pockets and filling them further every day of the week .
The corruption here is nowadays reaching a class well above any african and asian standards , which was already the main cause of their poverty and backwardness . I strongly believe there is plenty for everybody on this earth when there would only exist a fair justice system banning all systematic corruption , exploitation , theft and unlawful behaviour.
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In your first paragraph you could replace “Europe” with “Australia”, plus some other minor modifications, and your whole comment would still be accurate and true.
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“Here in Australia the communists , socialists ,liberals ,green fascists & academia are all in into the green deal ,banning CO2 , a by-product of human effort and activity .This is sheer madness, sorcery and quacking at an outrageous level ,but nearly 2/3 of the population is strongly believing this crap .”
There, all fixed Ross.
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Steal from one person, you’re a robber and will never be rich.
Steal from a company, you’re a fraudster and might get rich.
Steal a whole country, you’re a politician and will always be rich!
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Weird, isn’t it?
Why would you even consider Nuclear power generation?
Here we have the same Nameplate for all sources of power generation and the last figure is the power delivered over a whole year.
Plant – Nameplate – Delivered Power
Nuclear – 2000MW – 16,220GWH
Wind – 2000MW – 5,260GWH
Solar – 2000MW – 4,400GWH
Rooftop Solar – 2000MW – 2,350GWH
So, even when you add those three renewables of choice together, (so, TRIPLE the Nameplate of Nuclear) they still deliver 20% LESS total power than Nuclear.
Could it be that those renewables don’t really do what they are supposed to do. You know ….. deliver power!!
Tony.
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Tony, the only thing wrong with your argument is that the “renewables” are not MEANT to deliver (electrical) power. Their purpose is to deliver MISERY for non-Elites, and fantastic wealth and (political) power for the Elites.
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Thanks Tony for your data and I’d like you to compare Nuclear delivered power to the same Nameplate of 2000 MW of Coal power?
We know that both deliver power for 24/7 nearly all of the time, but would Nuclear really be better in a practical sense over periods of decades? Of course apart from co2 emissions from coal that is supposed to be so dangerous for our future.
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And both offer reliable supplies.
Electricity Prices Plunge By 75% As Finland Opens New Nuclear Power Plant
And while the plant’s production is still in its early days, its launch has had a considerable effect on Finland’s energy prices, lowering the electricity spot price in the country from €245.98 per megawatt-hour (MWh) in December to €60.55 per MWh in April
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Even if a nuclear power plant was opened in Australia, which simply will not be allowed to happen as we have no one in leadership with any (un)common sense, prices would not be ALLOWED to drop. The most important priority is to make sure subsidies continue to be harvested by the unreliables generators.
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Hi again Neville,
I found, as but one example, the following report at World Nuclear News:
https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Nuclear-generation-in-2019-close-to-record-high
Nuclear plants and coal plants both have the highest availability, but several nuclear plants hold the records for the highest availability, while a CANDU reactor with on-line refuelling holds the outright record for the longest time between shutdowns.
You can do a topic search at the WNN website.
I trust that this helps.
Best regards,
Paul Miskelly
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Thanks again Paul.
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Another one on that page was interesting- The Yanks trying to find an excuse to steal Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant back from the Russians.
“US Department of Energy had sent a letter saying that the occupied plant in Ukraine “contains US-origin nuclear technical data that is export-controlled by the United States Government”.
According to the CNN report the US DOE letter says: “It is unlawful under United States law for non-authorised persons, including, but not limited to, Russian citizens and Russian entities, such as Rosatom and its subsidiaries, to knowingly and willfully access, possess, control, export, store, seize, review, re-export, ship, transfer, copy, manipulate such technology or technical data, or direct, or authorise others to do the same, without such Russian entities becoming authorised recipients by the Secretary of the US Department of Energy.””
The Russians replied that they don’t need American technology or fuel, and will replace it with Russian fuel as soon as possible..
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Agree with all of comments posted by Tony and others.
I should like to point out 2 things:
1. A stable grid requires Baseload and Peaking generation. Coal and Nuclear qualify as baseload, but a few gas turbines or smaller coal/nukes are necessary to bridge the gap between about 300 MW and 1000 MW. Something has to have a high ramp rate for surge conditions and large coal or nuke plants “like” to run at full capacity for maximum efficiency. Sorting out the generation mix sizes, ramping rates, etc, requires in depth analysis of the load profile over time and integration with planning and construction goals. Economic dispatch is necessary.
2. If people want to go nuclear, one must bear in mind that a single source provides 80% of the entire world’s ring forgings for nuclear reactor pressure vessels, and that has a production limit of 1 per month. If the US were to go full nuclear, the entire production of those forgings would be contracted for the next 80 years with none to spare for anyone else. Whatever France decides to do is also constrained by this. https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fuel-cycle/nuclear-power-reactors/heavy-manufacturing-of-power-plants.aspx
Lots of factors come into play. Grid planning is necessary for stability, reliability, economics, construction, commissioning, maintenance, etc. Solar and wind are simply too unreliable, non-dispatchable, and uneconomical to power a reliable grid. Allowing politicians to make any of these decisions, for which they bear no responsibility, is national economic and security suicide.
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Yeah, look, I’m with Lance here.
You only need look at a typical daily Load Curve for power generation/consumption to see what Lance mentions in his Point 1. (Here’s a couple I prepared earlier, one for the Base Load, and the second one for Peak Power)
I only quoted the Nuclear stats comparison with respect to France here.
It would be basically a similar comparison for a new tech coal fired power plant.
Even I know that there will not be any Nuclear Power Plants here in Oz for a veeeeeeery long time. Even if we start the debate right now, and everything went in its favour, it will be at the very least twenty years PLUS before any nuclear power plant delivers power to the grid here in Australia.
Pretty soon now, the realisation will ‘hit home’ that we NEED new coal fired power plants.
Trust me, there are people in positions of power who KNOW this ….. HAND ON HEART.
They’re all looking at each other and saying ….. Well, I’m not going to be the one who has to come out and say it.
Sometimes I really think that rather than come out and say it, they’re just waiting for the ….. catastrophe to just happen, because then they can justify it.
Trouble is, it’s already five to ten years too late now.
Queensland knows this. One of the main findings of the 30% Renewables by 2030 was that they were NOT going to close any of their existing coal fired power plants. (Hypocrisy writ large)
Tony.
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Lance, your point 2 looks a little like the sort of push-back that the inane Energy Minister Bowen would home in on.
A few decades ago the world’s ability to produce today’s huge wind turbine blades was non existent. Over 80 years we could expect a massive ramp up of heavy industry to meet a burgeoning world demand for nuclear plant.
Of course that’s only if the world finally accepts the reality that nuclear is the only way to move ahead.
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Yes to peaking support, but I’m not that keen on seeing OCGT being used for this. OCGT is not efficient, thus pushing up electricity costs.
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Traditionally in most cases, peaking support has been from Hydro or Pumped Hydro generation.
Pumped hydro is especially good when used in combination with Nuclear plants as it allows them to run at a steady optimum output for as long as possible with any excess being diverted to pumping, ready for the peak demand supply.
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Once every two years the Columbia Generating Station shuts down and refurbishes. This is that time — flows in the Great Columbia River fill in the missing nuclear.
https://www.energy-northwest.com/energyprojects/Columbia/Pages/Refueling%20Outages.aspx
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Great and simple statement of reality Tony.
This detail would make a great talking point for the Coalition – Dutton, O’Brien, et al.
Including coal as well would see it ranking with nuclear.
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Finland – its population is about the same as Queensland and they have nuclear power. WTF!!! But you know if they had hundreds of years of easily extractable coal and gas like us, they would probably run the country on 2 or 3 latest tech ( eg HELE/USC) hydrocarbon power plants.
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Ok, its cost blew out to US$11bn, but that’s way better to have 1650 MW 24/7, instead of our plans to waste up to $12bn to support Snowy 2, just a large expensive battery.
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South Africa has found a new way to reduce co2 emissions.
Just have so many blackouts and shut downs that you actually stuff up the grid and have less industry and jobs to worry about.
I think it’s called “the failed state model”.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/05/17/bloomberg-news-south-africa-beats-climate-goal-as-blackouts-slash-emissions-unintentionalpower-plant-breakdowns-are-reducing-industrial-activity/
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And Germany is following.
Germany’s Federal Network Agency Plans To Ration Electricity As Electric Power Crisis Heightens.
https://notrickszone.com/2023/05/16/germanys-federal-network-agency-plans-to-ration-electricity-as-electric-power-crisis-heightens/
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The new model the Euro clowns aspire to.
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In the link Neville posted it quotes the UK Daily Telegraph:
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How that useless commo Merkel survived for so long in a country like Germany, really baffles me.
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Expect unconvincing fudge factors,
From the nuclear lobby detractors,
Whose net-zero goal,
Can be met part or whole,
By the new generation reactors.
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10:25… Flinders Island 72% diesel power, God bless Rudolf.
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Yes Ronin and King island W & S bloody useless as usual.
Solar about 3% and Wind has the jumps and jives as usual ranging from 19% and back to ZERO in just a minute.
YET we’ll be able to rely on these lunacies to power the wealthy OECD countries according to the stupid pollies, +banks and all the other con merchants?
https://www.hydro.com.au/clean-energy/hybrid-energy-solutions/success-stories/king-island
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The best outcome here would be for France to leave the EU and become the catalyst for a complete breakup. Getting rid of those socialist globalists that sit in Brussels would do everyone a huge favour.
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None of this “renewables” madness would have happened had not the Left had a concerted attack on the education system starting in the 1960’s, in particular a war against critical thinking skills and general knowledge, plus, in more recent times, the censorship and cancelling of anybody and everybody, including President Trump and academics, whom the Left disagree with.
That censorship and cancelling is now far more severe than it has ever been, with the sole exception being Jo’s site here and the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk to turn it into a free speech platform.
The Left are intolerant of a lot of things, but in particular alternative ideas that challenge their Official Narrative. And frighteningly, they are becoming more and more violent in support of their views.
I quoted Gad Saad above:
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We all know and understand that nuclear is the best renewable and lowest carbon emmitter.
Stubborn EU won’t accept it and so foggiest going it alone. Just like Russia . .
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nuclear (baseload power) makes renewables redundant.
so on no account can the carpetbaggers permit the use of nuclear.
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South Africa is the litmus test.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/05/17/bloomberg-news-south-africa-beats-climate-goal-as-blackouts-slash-emissions-unintentionalpower-plant-breakdowns-are-reducing-industrial-activity/
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Recently the media told us that our Aussie Nuclear powered submarines wouldn’t require refuelling for the life of the sub or about 30 years.
I watched a video on the USS Ronald Reagan on you tube and they also stated that it wouldn’t require any refuelling for at least 25 years.
Processed nuclear fuel is about as close to magic as most lay persons could understand and why stupid Turnbull wanted us to use diesel subs is way beyond barking mad IMHO.
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And then the Turnbullsh*t Regime ordered French nuclear submarines anyway, but bizarrely wanted them redesigned as diesel-electric. No one in military history has EVER been that stupid or wasted so much money on something so non-sensical.
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Original price of the 12 diesel boats was to be $50Billion. They started to scream when the French boats were expected to cost $90B. Now 8 nukes are going to cost $368B. Thats $46B per boat. The US pays about A$5B for Virginia class submarine, call it A$10B including life cycle costs. Or another way to look at it, is that $368B buys you about 3680 F35 fighter planes. Thats more fighters than the US airforce has. Agree Turnbull was stupid but his stupidity has been exceeded.
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Next northern hemisphere winter the Swiss will go into hibernation.
https://lenews.ch/2021/10/18/swiss-president-warns-nation-to-prepare-for-electricity-shortages/
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The French are mad, but the income from selling nuclear base load to all their Green neighbours is irresistible. Especially Germany after so many world wars. Including that Napoleon chap.
The more the Greens close down coal, oil and gas and fertilizer and trains and planes and farming the more France makes from a sunk investment. C’est tres, tres Bon.
Especially since the Germans and the British decided to shut down their industries. It’s just too easy. And they can buy off the even madder Greens with more electric German cars. Who needs windmills when you have nuclear? And best of all. No emissions!
Who would have ever dreamed that the Greens would wage world war against CO2? Everything that’s Green is made from CO2. Except malachite which is an oxide of copper. CO2 is the very essence of Green, of forests and trees and ferns and leaves. In fact CO2 is the most important single molecule on the planet after H2O.
And what warming? What Climate Change? What rapid sea level rise? And who really cared about Polar Bears before in the history of the planet?
So more French nuclear please. Until the Greens wage war on nuclear which is obviously far safer than CO2.
And we can sell this to the Australians. After all, they bought five giant desalination plants they didn’t need and they are still paying them off at high interest rates. There’s one born every minute.
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And it’s some compensation for the loss of the 1/4 Trillion $ deal for diesel powered submarines like WWII. Useless but very profitable. Australia is a gift which gives on giving. Nuclear reactors are next. If the French Greens buy this, we can flog them to the Australians. Except the Greens will want them to be diesel.
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France is acting out of self interest just as they always do. But it’s good to see them stirring up the self important fools in the rest of Europe who continue in their deluded belief that a reliable grid can be maintained on weather dependent energy.
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