Podcasts about sizewell

My fellow pro-growth/progress/abundance Up Wingers,Nuclear fission is a safe, powerful, and reliable means of generating nearly limitless clean energy to power the modern world. A few public safety scares and a lot of bad press over the half-century has greatly delayed our nuclear future. But with climate change and energy-hungry AI making daily headlines, the time — finally — for a nuclear renaissance seems to have arrived.Today on Faster, Please! — The Podcast, I talk with Dr. Tim Gregory about the safety and efficacy of modern nuclear power, as well as the ambitious energy goals we should set for our society.Gregory is a nuclear scientist at the UK National Nuclear Laboratory. He is also a popular science broadcaster on radio and TV, and an author. His most recent book, Going Nuclear: How Atomic Energy Will Save the World is out now.In This Episode* A false start for a nuclear future (1:29)* Motivators for a revival (7:20)* About nuclear waste . . . (12:41)* Not your mother's reactors (17:25)* Commercial fusion, coming soon . . . ? (23:06)Below is a lightly edited transcript of our conversation. A false start for a nuclear future (1:29)The truth is that radiation, we're living in it all the time, it's completely inescapable because we're all living in a sea of background radiation.Pethokoukis: Why do America, Europe, Japan not today get most of their power from nuclear fission, since that would've been a very reasonable prediction to make in 1965 or 1975, but it has not worked out that way? What's your best take on why it hasn't?Going back to the '50s and '60s, it looked like that was the world that we currently live in. It was all to play for, and there were a few reasons why that didn't happen, but the main two were Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. It's a startling statistic that the US built more nuclear reactors in the five years leading up to Three Mile Island than it has built since. And similarly on this side of the Atlantic, Europe built more nuclear reactors in the five years leading up to Chernobyl than it has built since, which is just astounding, especially given that nobody died in Three Mile Island and nobody was even exposed to anything beyond the background radiation as a result of that nuclear accident.Chernobyl, of course, was far more consequential and far more serious than Three Mile Island. 30-odd people died in the immediate aftermath, mostly people who were working at the power station and the first responders, famously the firefighters who were exposed to massive amounts of radiation, and probably a couple of hundred people died in the affected population from thyroid cancer. It was people who were children and adolescents at the time of the accident.So although every death from Chernobyl was a tragedy because it was avoidable, they're not in proportion to the mythic reputation of the night in question. It certainly wasn't reason to effectively end nuclear power expansion in Europe because of course we had to get that power from somewhere, and it mainly came from fossil fuels, which are not just a little bit more deadly than nuclear power, they're orders of magnitude more deadly than nuclear power. When you add up all of the deaths from nuclear power and compare those deaths to the amount of electricity that we harvest from nuclear power, it's actually as safe as wind and solar, whereas fossil fuels kill hundreds or thousands of times more people per unit of power. To answer your question, it's complicated and there are many answers, but the main two were Three Mile Island and Chernobyl.I wonder how things might have unfolded if those events hadn't happened or if society had responded proportionally to the actual damage. Three Mile Island and Chernobyl are portrayed in documentaries and on TV as far deadlier than they really were, and they still loom large in the public imagination in a really unhelpful way.You see it online, actually, quite a lot about the predicted death toll from Chernobyl, because, of course, there's no way of saying exactly which cases of cancer were caused by Chernobyl and which ones would've happened anyway. Sometimes you see estimates that are up in the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of deaths from Chernobyl. They are always based on a flawed scientific hypothesis called the linear no-threshold model that I go into in quite some detail in chapter eight of my book, which is all about the human health effects of exposure to radiation. This model is very contested in the literature. It's one of the most controversial areas of medical science, actually, the effects of radiation on the human body, and all of these massive numbers you see of the death toll from Chernobyl, they're all based on this really kind of clunky, flawed, contentious hypothesis. My reading of the literature is that there's very, very little physical evidence to support this particular hypothesis, but people take it and run. I don't know if it would be too far to accuse people of pushing a certain idea of Chernobyl, but it almost certainly vastly, vastly overestimates the effects.I think a large part of the reason of why this had such a massive impact on the public and politicians is this lingering sense of radiophobia that completely blight society. We've all seen it in the movies, in TV shows, even in music and computer games — radiation is constantly used as a tool to invoke fear and mistrust. It's this invisible, centerless, silent specter that's kind of there in the background: It means birth defects, it means cancers, it means ill health. We've all kind of grown up in this culture where the motif of radiation is bad news, it's dangerous, and that inevitably gets tied to people's sense of nuclear power. So when you get something like Three Mile Island, society's imagination and its preconceptions of radiation, it's just like a dry haystack waiting for a flint spark to land on it, and up it goes in flames and people's imaginations run away with them.The truth is that radiation, we're living in it all the time, it's completely inescapable because we're all living in a sea of background radiation. There's this amazing statistic that if you live within a couple of miles of a nuclear power station, the extra amount of radiation you're exposed to annually is about the same as eating a banana. Bananas are slightly radioactive because of the slight amount of potassium-40 that they naturally contain. Even in the wake of these nuclear accidents like Chernobyl, and more recently Fukushima, the amount of radiation that the public was exposed to barely registers and, in fact, is less than the background radiation in lots of places on the earth.Motivators for a revival (7:20)We have no idea what emerging technologies are on the horizon that will also require massive amounts of power, and that's exactly where nuclear can shine.You just suddenly reminded me of a story of when I was in college in the late 1980s, taking a class on the nuclear fuel cycle. You know it was an easy class because there was an ampersand in it. “Nuclear fuel cycle” would've been difficult. “Nuclear fuel cycle & the environment,” you knew it was not a difficult class.The man who taught it was a nuclear scientist and, at one point, he said that he would have no problem having a nuclear reactor in his backyard. This was post-Three Mile Island, post-Chernobyl, and the reaction among the students — they were just astounded that he would be willing to have this unbelievably dangerous facility in his backyard.We have this fear of nuclear power, and there's sort of an economic component, but now we're seeing what appears to be a nuclear renaissance. I don't think it's driven by fear of climate change, I think it's driven A) by fear that if you are afraid of climate change, just solar and wind aren't going to get you to where you want to be; and then B) we seem like we're going to need a lot of clean energy for all these AI data centers. So it really does seem to be a perfect storm after a half-century.And who knows what next. When I started writing Going Nuclear, the AI story hadn't broken yet, and so all of the electricity projections for our future demand, which, they range from doubling to tripling, we're going to need a lot of carbon-free electricity if we've got any hope of electrifying society whilst getting rid of fossil fuels. All of those estimates were underestimates because nobody saw AI coming.It's been very, very interesting just in the last six, 12 months seeing Big Tech in North America moving first on this. Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta have all either invested or actually placed orders for small modular reactors specifically to power their AI data centers. In some ways, they've kind of led the charge on this. They've moved faster than most nation states, although it is encouraging, actually, here in the UK, just a couple of weeks ago, the government announced that our new nuclear power station is definitely going ahead down in Sizewell in Suffolk in the south of England. That's a 3.2 gigawatt nuclear reactor, it's absolutely massive. But it's been really, really encouraging to see Big Tech in the private sector in North America take the situation into their own hands. If anyone's real about electricity demands and how reliable you need it, it's Big Tech with these data centers.I always think, go back five, 10 years, talk of AI was only on the niche subreddits and techie podcasts where people were talking about it. It broke into the mainstream all of a sudden. Who knows what is going to happen in the next five or 10 years. We have no idea what emerging technologies are on the horizon that will also require massive amounts of power, and that's exactly where nuclear can shine.In the US, at least, I don't think decarbonization alone is enough to win broad support for nuclear, since a big chunk of the country doesn't think we actually need to do that. But I think that pairing it with the promise of rapid AI-driven economic growth creates a stronger case.I tried to appeal to a really broad church in Going Nuclear because I really, really do believe that whether you are completely preoccupied by climate change and environmental issues or you're completely preoccupied by economic growth, and raising living, standards and all of that kind of thing, all the monetary side of things, nuclear is for you because if you solve the energy problem, you solve both problems at once. You solve the economic problem and the environmental problem.There's this really interesting relationship between GDP per head — which is obviously incredibly important in economic terms — and energy consumption per head, and it's basically a straight line relationship between the two. There are no rich countries that aren't also massive consumers of energy, so if you really, really care about the economy, you should really also be caring about energy consumption and providing energy abundance so people can go out and use that energy to create wealth and prosperity. Again, that's where nuclear comes in. You can use nuclear power to sate that massive energy demand that growing economies require.This podcast is very pro-wealth and prosperity, but I'll also say, if the nuclear dreams of the '60s where you had, in this country, what was the former Atomic Energy Commission expecting there to be 1000 nuclear reactors in this country by the year 2000, we're not having this conversation about climate change. It is amazing that what some people view as an existential crisis could have been prevented — by the United States and other western countries, at least — just making a different political decision.We would be spending all of our time talking about something else, and how nice would that be?For sure. I'm sure there'd be other existential crises to worry about.But for sure, we wouldn't be talking about climate change was anywhere near the volume or the sense of urgency as we are now if we would've carried on with the nuclear expansion that really took off in the '70s and the '80s. It would be something that would be coming our way in a couple of centuries.About nuclear waste . . . (12:41). . . a 100 percent nuclear-powered life for about 80 years, their nuclear waste would barely fill a wine glass or a coffee cup. I don't know if you've ever seen the television show For All Mankind?I haven't. So many people have recommended it to me.It's great. It's an alt-history that looks at what if the Space Race had never stopped. As a result, we had a much more tech-enthusiastic society, which included being much more pro-nuclear.Anyway, imagine if you are on a plane talking to the person next to you, and the topic of your book comes up, and the person says hey, I like energy, wealth, prosperity, but what are you going to do about the nuclear waste?That almost exact situation has happened, but on a train rather than an airplane. One of the cool things about uranium is just how much energy you can get from a very small amount of it. If typical person in a highly developed economy, say North America, Europe, something like that, if they produced all of their power over their entire lifetime from nuclear alone, so forget fossil fuels, forget wind and solar, a 100 percent nuclear-powered life for about 80 years, their nuclear waste would barely fill a wine glass or a coffee cup. You need a very small amount of uranium to power somebody's life, and the natural conclusion of that is you get a very small amount of waste for a lifetime of power. So in terms of the numbers, and the amount of nuclear waste, it's just not that much of a problem.However, I don't want to just try and trivialize it out of existence with some cool pithy statistics and some cool back-of-the-envelopes physics calculations because we still have to do something with the nuclear waste. This stuff is going to be radioactive for the best part of a million years. Thankfully, it's quite an easy argument to make because good old Finland, which is one of the most nuclear nations on the planet as a share of nuclear in its grid, has solved this problem. It has implemented — and it's actually working now — the world's first and currently only geological repository for nuclear waste. Their idea is essentially to bury it in impermeable bedrock and leave it there because, as with all radioactive objects, nuclear waste becomes less radioactive over time. The idea is that, in a million years, Finland's nuclear waste won't be nuclear waste anymore, it will just be waste. A million years sounds like a really long time to our ears, but it's actually —It does.It sounds like a long time, but it is the blink of an eye, geologically. So to a geologist, a million years just comes and goes straight away. So it's really not that difficult to keep nuclear waste safe underground on those sorts of timescales. However — and this is the really cool thing, and this is one of the arguments that I make in my book — there are actually technologies that we can use to recycle nuclear waste. It turns out that when you pull uranium out of a reactor, once it's been burned for a couple of years in a reactor, 95 percent of the atoms are still usable. You can still use them to generate nuclear power. So by throwing away nuclear waste when it's been through a nuclear reactor once, we're actually squandering like 95 percent of material that we're throwing away.The theory is this sort of the technology behind breeder reactors?That's exactly right, yes.What about the plutonium? People are worried about the plutonium!People are worried about the plutonium, but in a breeder reactor, you get rid of the plutonium because you split it into fission products, and fission products are still radioactive, but they have much shorter half-lives than plutonium. So rather than being radioactive for, say, a million years, they're only radioactive, really, for a couple of centuries, maybe 1000 years, which is a very, very different situation when you think about long-term storage.I read so many papers and memos from the '50s when these reactors were first being built and demonstrated, and they worked, by the way, they're actually quite easy to build, it just happened in a couple of years. Breeder reactors were really seen as the future of humanity's power demands. Forget traditional nuclear power stations that we all use at the moment, which are just kind of once through and then you throw away 95 percent of the energy at the end of it. These breeder reactors were really, really seen as the future.They never came to fruition because we discovered lots of uranium around the globe, and so the supply of uranium went up around the time that the nuclear power expansion around the world kind of seized up, so the uranium demand dropped as the supply increased, so the demand for these breeder reactors kind of petered out and fizzled out. But if we're really, really serious about the medium-term future of humanity when it comes to energy, abundance, and prosperity, we need to be taking a second look at these breeder reactors because there's enough uranium and thorium in the ground around the world now to power the world for almost 1000 years. After that, we'll have something else. Maybe we'll have nuclear fusion.Well, I hope it doesn't take a thousand years for nuclear fusion.Yes, me too.Not your mother's reactors (17:25)In 2005, France got 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear. They almost decarbonized their grid by accident before anybody cared about climate change, and that was during a time when their economy was absolutely booming.I don't think most people are aware of how much innovation has taken place around nuclear in the past few years, or even few decades. It's not just a climate change issue or that we need to power these data centers — the technology has vastly improved. There are newer, safer technologies, so we're not talking about 1975-style reactors.Even if it were the 1975-style reactors, that would be fine because they're pretty good and they have an absolutely impeccable safety record punctuated by a very small number of high-profile events such as Chernobyl and Fukushima. I'm not to count Three Mile Island on that list because nobody died, but you know what I mean.But the modern nuclear reactors are amazing. The ones that are coming out of France, the EPRs, the European Power Reactors, there are going to be two of those in the UK's new nuclear power station, and they've been designed to withstand an airplane flying into the side of them, so they're basically bomb-proof.As for these small modular reactors, that's getting people very excited, too. As their name suggests, they're small. How small is a reasonable question — the answer is as small as you want to go. These things are scalable, and I've seen designs for just one-megawatt reactors that could easily fit inside a shipping container. They could fit in the parking lots around the side of a data center, or in the basement even, all the way up to multi-hundred-megawatt reactors that could fit on a couple of tennis courts worth of land. But it's really the modular part that's the most interesting thing. That's the ‘M' and that's never been done before.Which really gets to the economics of the SMRs.It really does. The idea is you could build upwards of 90 percent of these reactors on a factory line. We know from the history of industrialization that as soon as you start mass producing things, the unit cost just plummets and the timescales shrink. No one has achieved that yet, though. There's a lot of hype around small modular reactors, and so it's kind of important not to get complacent and really keep our eye on the ultimate goal, which is mass-production and mass rapid deployment of nuclear power stations, crucially in the places where you need them the most, as well.We often think about just decarbonizing our electricity supply or decoupling our electricity supply from volatilities in the fossil fuel market, but it's about more than electricity, as well. We need heat for things like making steel, making the ammonia that feeds most people on the planet, food and drinks factories, car manufacturers, plants that rely on steam. You need heat, and thankfully, the primary energy from a nuclear reactor is heat. The electricity is secondary. We have to put effort into making that. The heat just kind of happens. So there's this idea that we could use the surplus heat from nuclear reactors to power industrial processes that are very, very difficult to decarbonize. Small modular reactors would be perfect for that because you could nestle them into the industrial centers that need the heat close by. So honestly, it is really our imaginations that are the limits with these small modular reactors.They've opened a couple of nuclear reactors down in Georgia here. The second one was a lot cheaper and faster to build because they had already learned a bunch of lessons building that first one, and it really gets at sort of that repeatability where every single reactor doesn't have to be this one-off bespoke project. That is not how it works in the world of business. How you get cheaper things is by building things over and over, you get very good at building them, and then you're able to turn these things out at scale. That has not been the economic situation with nuclear reactors, but hopefully with small modular reactors, or even if we just start building a lot of big advanced reactors, we'll get those economies of scale and hopefully the economic issue will then take care of itself.For sure, and it is exactly the same here in the UK. The last reactor that we connected to the grid was in 1995. I was 18 months old. I don't even know if I was fluent in speaking at 18 months old. I was really, really young. Our newest nuclear power station, Hinkley Point C, which is going to come online in the next couple of years, was hideously expensive. The uncharitable view of that is that it's just a complete farce and is just a complete embarrassment, but honestly, you've got to think about it: 1995, the last nuclear reactor in the UK, it was going to take a long time, it was going to be expensive, basically doing it from scratch. We had no supply chain. We didn't really have a workforce that had ever built a nuclear reactor before, and with this new reactor that just got announced a couple of weeks ago, the projected price is 20 percent cheaper, and it is still too expensive, it's still more expensive than it should be, but you're exactly right.By tapping into those economies of scale, the cost per nuclear reactor will fall, and France did this in the '70s and '80s. Their nuclear program is so amazing. France is still the most nuclear nation on the planet as a share of its total electricity. In 2005, France got 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear. They almost decarbonized their grid by accident before anybody cared about climate change, and that was during a time when their economy was absolutely booming. By the way, still today, all of those reactors are still working and they pay less than the European Union average for that electricity, so this idea that nuclear makes your electricity expensive is simply not true. They built 55 nuclear reactors in 25 years, and they did them in parallel. It was just absolutely amazing. I would love to see a French-style nuclear rollout in all developed countries across the world. I think that would just be absolutely amazing.Commercial fusion, coming soon . . . ? (23:06)I think we're pretty good at doing things when we put our minds to it, but certainly not in the next couple of decades. But luckily, we already have a proven way of producing lots of energy, and that's with nuclear fission, in the meantime.What is your enthusiasm level or expectation about nuclear fusion? I can tell you that the Silicon Valley people I talk to are very positive. I know they're inherently very positive people, but they're very enthusiastic about the prospects over the next decade, if not sooner, of commercial fusion. How about you?It would be incredible. The last question that I was asked in my PhD interview 10 years ago was, “If you could solve one scientific or engineering problem, what would it be?” and my answer was nuclear fusion. And that would be the answer that I would give today. It just seems to me to be obviously the solution to the long-term energy needs of humanity. However, I'm less optimistic, perhaps, than the Silicon Valley crowd. The running joke, of course, is that it's always 40 years away and it recedes into the future at one year per year. So I would love to be proved wrong, but realistically — no one's even got it working in a prototype power station. That's before we even think about commercializing it and deploying it at scale. I really, really think that we're decades away, maybe even something like a century. I'd be surprised if it took longer than a century, actually. I think we're pretty good at doing things when we put our minds to it, but certainly not in the next couple of decades. But luckily, we already have a proven way of producing lots of energy, and that's with nuclear fission, in the meantime.Don't go to California with that attitude. I can tell you that even when I go there and I talk about AI, if I say that AI will do anything less than improve economic growth by a factor of 100, they just about throw me out over there. Let me just finish up by asking you this: Earlier, we mentioned Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. How resilient do you think this nuclear renaissance is to an accident?Even if we take the rate of accident over the last 70 years of nuclear power production and we maintain that same level of rate of accident, if you like, it's still one of the safest things that our species does, and everyone talks about the death toll from nuclear power, but nobody talks about the lives that it's already saved because of the fossil fuels, that it's displaced fossil fuels. They're so amazing in some ways, they're so convenient, they're so energy-dense, they've created the modern world as we all enjoy it in the developed world and as the developing world is heading towards it. But there are some really, really nasty consequences of fossil fuels, and whether or not you care about climate change, even the air pollution alone and the toll that that takes on human health is enough to want to phase them out. Nuclear power already is orders of magnitude safer than fossil fuels and I read this really amazing paper that globally, it was something like between the '70s and the '90s, nuclear power saved about two million lives because of the fossil fuels that it displaced. That's, again, orders of magnitude more lives that have been lost as a consequence of nuclear power, mostly because of Chernobyl and Fukushima. Even if the safety record of nuclear in the past stays the same and we forward-project that into the future, it's still a winning horse to bet on.If in the UK they've started up one new nuclear reactor in the past 30 years, right? How many would you guess will be started over the next 15 years?Four or five. Something like that, I think; although I don't know.Is that a significant number to you?It's not enough for my liking. I would like to see many, many more. Look at France. I know I keep going back to it, but it's such a brilliant example. If France hadn't done what they'd done in between the '70s and the '90s — 55 nuclear reactors in 25 years, all of which are still working — it would be a much more difficult case to make because there would be no historical precedent for it. So, maybe predictably, I wouldn't be satisfied with anything less than a French-scale nuclear rollout, let's put it that way.On sale everywhere The Conservative Futurist: How To Create the Sci-Fi World We Were PromisedMicro Reads▶ Economics* The U.S. Marches Toward State Capitalism With American Characteristics - WSJ* AI Spending Is Propping Up the Economy, Right? It's Complicated. - Barron's* Goodbye, $165,000 Tech Jobs. 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Bishop & Taylor discuss EDF's decision to rein in its exposure to the Sizewell C nuclear plant, reorganisation of the Building Safety Regulator and the imminent soaring hike in landfill tax.

Jam packed week this - Dale has the spending review blues, we talk Sizewell and the simple alternative we already have (it's not green either) and the dynamite revelation about Hinkley. Big focus on homes, affordable or not, the rooftop revolution we need and the Swift brick gets explained.  Meanwhile economists put a number on the cost of Reform's Nexit…western media go all estate agent in the Middle East and Dale meets Gordo.  On point Qs from our listeners rounded off with more X rated nonsense than you can shake a stick at.

We had the pleasure of Sarah-Jane Harknett join us for our church weekend away at Sizewell Hall. Here is the first of her two sermons looking at Daniel.

Sarah-Jane Harknett concludes her two-part look at the book of Daniel on our church weekend away at Sizewell Hall.

Unlikely as it sounds Anneka Rice has long been part of a small painting group run by the extraordinary artist, Maggi Hambling. Over the years they've developed a strong bond. As Maggi puts it, the painting group is 'like family' to her. In this special episode of Open Country, Anneka travels to Suffolk to find out more about the county that has inspired Maggi's work: from her brooding seascapes, to the once controversial but now lauded Scallop on Aldeburgh beach. They start the day in a dank, dark, tree-covered ditch where Maggi hid as a teenager when she was too nervous to attend a painting class. Then to Maggi's home, where - leaving the verdant overgrowth of her garden - they enter her studio where green (a colour she hates) disappears… there are blacks and greys and just a bit of pink. Next, onto the bleak but beautiful beach at Sizewell, it's here in the shadow of the nuclear power plant that the churning North Sea most speaks to Maggi. And finally to the huge steel sculpture of the Scallop on Aldeburgh beach… a tribute to Benjamin Britten and now one of the area's most popular attractions. As Maggi drives Anneka from location to location, the warmth, humour and friendship between the two shines out.Please see the 'related links' box on the Open Country webpage for this episode to find more info about the Cedric Morris/Arthur Lett-Haines exhibition in July 2024.Presenter: Anneka Rice Producer: Karen Gregor

In the second of her messages at our Sizewell weekend, Emma looked at how we can share the good news.

Nuclear energy is not renewable, but it is low-carbon. Whether it should be part of the post-fossil fuel power grid is heatedly debated. Bertie took this question to Dr. Paul Dorfman, an Associate Fellow of the University of Sussex's Science Policy Research Unit, and the Chair of nonprofit institute the Nuclear Consulting Group. Dr. Dorfman is an expert in nuclear risk and has advised the Irish, UK, French and EU governments on nuclear policy. Further reading: 'Is nuclear power the key to reaching net zero?', by Paul Dorfman in The New Statesman, August 2023'Saudi nukes: A desire for energy, weapons, or just leverage?' by Stasa Salacanin in The Cradle, October 2023'The end of Oppenheimer's energy dream' by Allison Macfarlane in IAI News, July 2023'The West hasn't gone after Russia's nuclear energy. Here's why' by Clare Sebastian in CNN, March 2023'The Debate: Nuclear is already well past its sell-by date' by Paul Dorfman in The New Statesman, May 2022'Nuclear energy isn't a safe bet in a warming world – here's why' by Paul Dorfman in The Conversation, June 2021'Things fall apart' by Paul Dorfman in The Ecologist, October 2021Click here to visit The Future Unrefined, our curated collection of articles and podcasts on raw materials and extraction. Find more podcasts and articles at www.landclimate.org

One third of countries will be in recession next year, so there has never been a more important time to get your financial house in order – see my free training https://bit.ly/3isugCr to help you manage your money. In his first major speech as Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt announced £55 billion ‘fiscal squeeze' tax changes and measures to cut the national debt whilst stimulating growth including the “biggest programme of public works for 40 years” and a plan to make the UK the world's next Silicon Valley.  Watch video version - https://youtu.be/9Y6FcXo22jQ Markets were reassured by a steady and responsible budget. Highlights: Social rents capped at 7% next year, saving tenants an average of “£200 a year”. Social rents should increase for private landlords housing social rent tenants by 5%. National Living Wage increased and more help poorer pensions and families on Universal Credit benefits. Pensions ‘Triple Lock' retained meaning the largest ‘inflation-linked' increase to state pensions. Hunt wants to bring down national debt as a percentage of national debt over 5 years. Extra energy costs reach £150 billion this year – more pain for consumers next year. Corporation tax and stamp duty changes to be implemented. Capital Gains Tax (CGT) thresholds halved – another tax rise. New nuclear power station announced at Sizewell, Suffolk. Inflation is the “enemy” of growth. Jeremy Hunt. Lowering higher rate tax thresholds from £150,000 to £125,140. Freezing tax free allowances – effectively increasing taxes. ‘Fiscal drag' means 3 million people will pay more tax. Windfall tax on energy companies increased to 35%. Electric vehicles will start paying car tax duty. OBR expects housing market to slow down – Stamp Duty reviewed. Big tech companies should pay more tax under a new international agreement. Review of “workforce participation” – get people on benefits to get a job! Crackdown on benefit fraud. Reality check. World heading into recession One third of countries will be in recession next year, so there has never been a more important time to get your financial house in order – see my free training https://bit.ly/3isugCr to help you manage your money. OBR predicts UK recession next year and low growth and 7.4% inflation next year - see 21 Money Saving Tips https://youtu.be/taJgXOqp9O0 – and negative inflation in 2025. UK inflation has hit 11.1%. Interest rates could rise again. £100 billion to service UK national debt. £177 billion more borrowing next year. Rishi gave away billions, Jeremy is taking it back, as he said, “it has to be paid for”. The UK always pays its debts, he reassured the markets. I have space now for a small group of people I can work with to mentor them to success in any economy. To help you get through this and come out stronger at the other end I am offering subscribers a Free Wealth Discovery Accelerator Call. If you are struggling to grow your income and reduce costs in the economic winter, I will personally speak to you to help you accelerate your wealth building journey.   If you would like to work with me to help you thrive in any economy, click on the link below to book a free Wealth Accelerator Discovery Call - https://calendly.com/charleskelly/wealth-accelerator-discovery-call #recession #money #economy #freetraining #moneytraining #coaching #mentor #positive #makemoney #managemoney #budget #jeremyhunt #inflation #tax #fiscaldrag This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

The Smart 7 is a daily podcast that gives you everything you need to know in 7 minutes, at 7 am, 7 days a week... With over 11 million downloads and consistently charting, including as No. 1 News Podcast on Spotify, we're a trusted source for people every day. If you're enjoying it, please follow, share, or even post a review, it all helps... Today's episode includes the following: https://twitter.com/i/status/1597508269068648448 https://twitter.com/i/status/1597505946787381248https://twitter.com/i/status/1597531765270364161 https://twitter.com/i/status/1597533397118816256 https://twitter.com/i/status/1597506348018593792https://twitter.com/i/status/1597545012069535746https://twitter.com/i/status/1597525323591008256https://youtu.be/8tk_7S8tD0Y https://twitter.com/i/status/1597739039297183744https://twitter.com/i/status/1597440833975832576 https://twitter.com/i/status/1597453766256492544 In Ireland? Why not try our Ireland Edition? Contact us over @TheSmart7pod or visit www.thesmart7.com Presented by Jamie East, written by Liam Thompson, researched by Lucie Lewis and produced by Daft Doris. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bishop & Taylor discuss government spending plans, how Sizewell C power station will be funded  and whether builders should have a builder as their institute's president

Sky's business presenter Ian King has the latest on the future of Britain's long-term energy security and takes a look at the travel sector's bounce back from the pandemic. Ian also finds out more about Ford's electric car fleet and discovers how gaming and hospitality are coming together in a new business venture.

- Bank of England expects UK to fall into longest ever recession - Sizewell new nuclear plant under review - UK new car sales up by nearly a quarter in October 3 of 5 business stories featured in today's 90 second podcast

Since my last episode quite a lot has happened. We have a new prime minister in the UK, there's a new green bill in the United States, Russia turns off its gas supplies to Europe and Pakistan turns from drought to catastrophic floods. The new prime minister has promised to sort out the energy crisis within a week and as he leaves office, Boris Johnson appears to have committed the incoming administration to building a new nuclear power station at Sizewell. That won't be in time to solve the current crisis and in any case the Greens believe that the solution is simply to nationalise the energy companies. Meanwhile incoming Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng raises doubts about the truth of the green credentials of Drax power station, which has received multi billions of pounds for burning wood. There's feedback from patrons and listeners, Tommy Wiedmann and Carol Dance, and finally will the United States' Artemis mission ever get off the ground, and if it does, is it a good thing?

Today Ian's catching up with the Nuclear Industry Association after Boris Johnson's backing for a new power station at Sizewell yesterday.Also, more evidence of shoppers tightening their belts, but we also hear from a travel company who say rising bills doesn't seem to be putting us off booking holidays.And find out why the Surrey gin belt is turning its hand to whisky.

In this podcast, Dr Mina Golshan, Safety, Security and Assurance Director at Sizewell C, discusses the plans for developing Sizewell C and the challenges involved.

Julia Pyke, Director of Finance, Sizewell C Sizewell C is a project to build a 3,200 MWe power station consisting of two EPR units on the site that currently hosts a single large pressurized water reactor (Sizewell B). With the exception of site-specific foundations and structures, the new power station will be a copy of the station currently under construction at Hinkley Point C. Like Hinkley Point C, Sizewell C will be capable of supplying approximately 7% of the UK's annual electricity requirement. It will be able to run at full power for 90% (or more) of the hours in the year. By following Hinkley Point, Sizewell will be a much less risky project. Trades have been trained, construction kinks have been worked out, supply chains have been created, managers have gained experience, and designs have been completed and tested. As a result of this "derisking" (using the lingo of project managers) Sizewell C will be a more affordable endeavor that should begin saving customers money from the time it first begins operating. But that expectation is unlikely to be fulfilled if the project has to be financed in the same way as Hinkley Point C, where the long construction duration and the inability to recover financing costs during construction has resulted in a situation where 70% or more of the total project cost is paid out in interest and return on investor risk capital. On this episode of the Atomic Show, Julia Pyke, the Director of Finance for the Sizewell C project, explains how the regulated asset base (RAB) model will enable Sizewell C to be economically financed and built. In the weeks since we recorded this episode of the Atomic Show, Russia's invasion of Ukraine has increased the importance of making it possible for Sizewell C participants to reach a final investment decision. Approval of the RAB model will be a major step forward in moving this project towards completion. It is a shovel-ready project that will help fill growing vulnerabilities in the UK's energy supply. It's not a quick fix, but it will be a durable one. Please participate in the discussion here. I hope you enjoy the show.

Ian Currie and Sam Kalibbala, from the Suffolk Chamber of Commerce Sizewell C supply chain, are this month's guests on The Compliance Experts Podcast.With less than a year from the ‘spade in the ground' at Sizewell C – Miles investigates what SME's should be doing in advance of sending in their tenders to join the Sizewell C Supply Chain. Ian recalls meetings 12 years ago when conversations began, and strategies were being laid down for SME's to apply for contracts. He talks about the difficulty for some smaller companies having to strategise so far into the future and how patience is the key to success as the time closes in for applications. Sam talks about the temptation for some companies to relax with such distant deadlines whilst others, who had kept up momentum, are in the favourable position to press the green button. He explains it's all about managing risk and ensuring your business meets all the competency standards that will be required at entry level. He explains further that there were poor results with Hinkley with only 10% of tenders being accepted due to poor competency levels.Ian says that there will be 8000 people on site at Sizewell C, and 25,000 more across the supply chain – which is well beyond the scale of any one company applying. Ian talks about collaboration, even with your competition. There are many major capital projects taking place in the UK right now, e.g. HS2 and Hinkley, and that means many of the big players are tied up.  This means that work is flowing down to smaller companies but, he warns, you cannot do it by yourself unless you unite and collaborate. Ask the question to your peers – are you interested in working on Sizewell C?  Can we maximise for Suffolk and build our scale?  Ian advises us to cross the divide and unite.Sam gives a great example of two local East Anglian businesses who have competed for years with similar turnovers of £200m, but recently, with the Sizewell C project on the horizon and both wanting to be a part of it, they have united for this purpose and created a company large enough to handle the work.Ian and Sam talk about the importance of building the project into company development plans and they stress not to expose your whole business to the project – but apportion part of it – too many eggs in one basket is risky for any long-term strategy.Sam talks about how things are heating up – there's more noise on social media now the momentum has begun. Miles adds that people should shout about what they do through their marketing so that it can be noticed and accelerated with this momentum. Sam adds that it's happening now in the Chamber.   Month by month conversations are increasing and more people are getting involved and sharing information. Increase of registrations is beginning to noticeably spike. Ian agrees with Sam and adds that if you're not signed up on the portal, please register.  Make sure your details are up to date.  Get in touch with Sam or Ian who are very happy to meet and give you an overview of how and where you might fit in. Once signed up, you will get regular updates too.Sam also adds that it doesn't matter how large or small your business is.  The operation is about retail and smaller services too.  Contact Sam on Samuel@suffolkchamber.co.uk Sizewell C Supply Chain Portal: https://www.sizewellcsupplychain.co.uk/ If you have thoughts or opinions on this topic Miles would love to hear from you and discuss some of your points in a later episode.Disclaimer: At the time of recording the information in this podcast was deemed to be correct BUT please note legislation, deadlines and information can change on a daily basis – so please always check with Vartan Consultancy for up-to-the-minute information.

Sizewell C consents manager Stephen Mannings and head of regional affairs Tom McGarry talked to NCE former features editor Nadine Buddoo and current features editor Sotiris Kanaris about EDF Energy's efforts to alleviate concerns about the project's environmental impact.   Like Sizewell B, the proposed nuclear power station Sizewell C will be located within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. For the construction of the new power station, Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) land will also be needed. For these reasons, local communities and environmental groups have raised concerns over the environmental impact of the project.   During the podcast discussion, Stephen and Tom run through several measures devised to minimise the construction phase's environmental impact. They also talk about the proposed plant design changes aiming to preserve a specific area of habitat and lower disturbance to wildlife.   EDF Energy has also invested in creating new habitat, the Aldhurst Farm, which Stephen explains in more detail on the podcast.   The Engineers Collective is powered by Bentley Systems. Around the world, engineers and architects, constructors and owner-operators are using Bentley's software solutions to accelerate project delivery and improve asset performance for transportation infrastructure that sustains our economy and our environment. Together, we are advancing infrastructure.

The potential build of a new power station at Sizewell in Suffolk, brings huge potential to companies and individuals across the East Anglia region. Investments of £4.5 billion will be spent in the region as well as 900 permanent jobs created. The project is looking forward to sign-off in Spring 2022 and aims to put the ‘Spade in the Ground' by January 2023.In this podcast episode we talk to three expert Sizewell B & C managers:Mark ScrancherLifetime Programmes (LTO) and Sizewell C Interface ManagerSizewell B Power Station Sean VerrallTechnical and Safety Support ManagerSizewell B Power Station Steven CarrollSizewell C Senior Supply Chain Lead  The team advise on how businesses can prepare to pitch or tender for work with Sizewell C and stress the importance of contractors being able to display existing high standards which should be supported by national compliance certifications. They also talk about what to expect during the tender process and beyond, as well as give us an insight into their thorough induction training and ongoing management of in-bound contractors. The discussion also covers protocols in place at Sizewell B for when something goes wrong, what that could look like, and how these issues are avoided with their extraordinary open culture of ‘free to challenge'. Sizewell B operates an environmental management system and currently recycle all waste on the power station site at a minimum of 99%.If you have any thoughts or opinions on this topic Miles would love to hear from you and discuss some of your points in a later episode. Disclaimer: At the time of recording the information in this podcast was deemed to be correct BUT please note legislation, deadlines and information can change on a daily basis – so please always check with Vartan Consultancy for up-to-the-minute information.  

This is part two of the Hilda Murrell podcast. Maybe I should think about doing some editing; apologies in this podcast I call Hilda Murrell, Hilda Murray a few times and have difficulty in conjugating a verb, sank or sunk? On consideration I am happy leaving in a few mistakes in order to concentrate on more stories.Anyhow in this episode we examine some aspects of the Falklands war, especially the sinking of the ship General Belgrano. We also exam the aspects of the Sizewell B nuclear plant inquiry.We consider the actions of Zeus Security and the private investigative firms that they employed to spy on those people and groups objecting to a new nuclear plant in Suffolk. In early 1985, tv programmes are being made about the murder of Hilda Murrell. This problem is not going away!

This is part one of a three part podcast.  21 March 1984. Hilda Murrell was abducted from her home. She was an anti-nuclear campaigner who had just gained approval to present a paper on the problems of nuclear waste at the Sizewell planning  inquiry.Hildfa's body was found three days later. The police thought that a lone panicking burglar was responsible.It seemed more probable that a panicking government or nuclear  agent or agents were responsible and then a cover up put into operation. In part one of the story we try to  consider4 the state of the UK in 1984 and the events of 21st March 1984.Part two which will be realised tomorrow (Saturday 17 April) will consider the reasons why Hilda was murdered,Part three which will be broadcast the day after part two (Sunday 18th April) will try to come to some conclusions.

The writer Julia Blackburn has lived much of the last forty years on the Suffolk coast where she has written biographies, poetry, radio plays and accounts of her own life. In recent years it is the landscape that has captured her imagination and her most recent book, 'Time Song', tells of how she became fascinated with the area known as Doggerland - a mass of land that once joined Suffolk and Holland and which is now submerged beneath the waves of the North Sea. Helen Mark joins Julia for a virtual walk along the Suffolk coast, starting at Sizewell and the shadow of the nuclear power station and along to the marshlands at Minsmere with all its accompanying bird-life. From there it's onto Dunwich where Julia once found a human skull, and onto Covehithe where she came across a bit of Mammoth vertebrae. For Julia these objects are part of the 'visitable past' and they become a means of telling stories about this precarious landscape. They finish in Pakefield where, in 2001, two men discovered a fragment of flint that provided proof of human settlements dating back 700'000 years. For Julia these objects tell a story of a fragment of time, which combined with the huge skies and the muddy sea make it a magical place. With contributions from Alex Pilling from RSPB Minsmere and Professor Martin Bell from the University of Reading. Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Toby Field, with additional recordings by Sophie Anton and Alex Pilling.

Eilidh grew up in a small village near St Andrew’s on the East coast of Scotland, where she scooped ice cream at Anstruther Fish Bar.She started languages at university but found this wasn’t for her and so she left early and spent a year in America as an Au Pair working with children with ADHD. This role taught her to be organised, focussed and above all patient.Eilidh returned to the UK and decided to study Business and Marketing at the University of Stirling.  Whilst here, she got involved with Greenpeace and began an intern doing their social media.  After leaving university, Eilidh was unsure what career path to take. She discovered the graduate scheme on offer from EDF Energy and successfully gained a place on it. She’s since moved to work on the Sizewell C project where she continues to develop her career.Eilidh’s hobbies include DIY projects, cooking and country music.To find out more visit: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/eilidh-dougan

The latest sustainability news, fun, facts and reviews from the Green Elephant for 16th December 2020. Top stories: 01:15 – EU Leaders Boost Climate Reduction Targets a Day before UN Summit 02:04 – Biden promises US-led climate summit in 2021 02:22 – Paris climate agreement: 54 cities on track to meet targets 18:10 – Sizewell … Sustainability News 16th December Read More »

Jack grew up in Norwich. At school, he really enjoyed the science subjects and went on to study chemistry, biology, and maths at A-level before specialising in chemistry at Sheffield University. He found his transition to university tough but also a part of his life where he grew up and learned to stand on his own two feet. University life made him realise he thrives under pressure to get a job done.Following university, Jack spent a successful 18 months working in crop genetics at the John Innes Centre in Norwich as a laboratory researcher. From here, he moved to Dupont to work in their disinfectants and cleaners business before making another move to EDF Energy as a commercial graduate on a two-year programme. After successful completion of this, Jack transferred to their Sizewell C project working as part of a team looking at how the project will be financed and seek approval. It’s working here that Jack has discovered his passion for a low-carbon energy mix.To find out more visit: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/jack-raven-a5430676

Today on The Leaders' Brief - Super typhoon Goni recently wreaked havoc in the Philippines archipelago. While the country is used to typhoons, ranging between 15 to 20 a year, Goni's intensity and a grappling pandemic have complicated matters for the Philippines. Goni is the strongest storm to hit the country since the destruction caused by Typhoon Haiyan in 2013. After a few setbacks to its new nuclear target in compliance with the UK's aim of low-carbon electricity production, the British government is set to greenlight the Sizewell C nuclear plant in Suffolk. Sizewell contractor EDF has stated that the project, which may cost up to $25 billion, will provide at least 70,000 jobs directly or indirectly to UK citizens.  The newly elected Jacinda Arden government saw New Zealanders vote to decide the fate of euthanasia and recreational marijuana. While early poll results indicated that New Zealanders have opted against legalizing the use of cannabis for recreational purposes, New Zealand is expected to soon join a handful of countries that permit euthanasia for terminally ill patients About egomonk: Website | Facebook | Twitter | LinkedInegomonk is a global intelligence platform delivering asymmetric outcomes by bringing organizations closer to the communities they want to serve and the leaders they wish to influence. If you wish to collaborate with us then email us at contact@egomonk.com.

Sizewell beach

Autonomous Sendory Meridian Reaonse - ASMR - here’s a little effort of mine extracted from a video of a walk along Sizewell Beach, Suffolk some time ago.

Audio from the seniors house party at Sizewell this year.

Audio from the seniors house party at Sizewell this year - note, has been edited to fit the podcast

Audio from the seniors house party at Sizewell this year.

Audio from the seniors house party at Sizewell this year.

Audio from the seniors house party at Sizewell this year.

Audio from the seniors house party at Sizewell this year.

Episode One: POWER In this first episode I'm taking another look at the announcement of Donald Trump's State visit to the UK and how it demonstrates "Soft Power", something the UK has traditionally been quite good at and I'll tell you why... then with Climate Change in mind, I go from Soft Power to the power that comes from our sockets- I look at an iconic landmark of the Suffolk Coast as a forerunner of "modern power generation" as well as a victim of historical changes to environmental factors. My special guest is a former Nuclear Submarine Commander about the realities of generating nuclear power in the context of Climate Change... all with a bit of context and world politics thrown in.

Goodbye Fritton Lake parkrun, your arbitraries and thingies, WMN merch requests, Elliott's stats, Harry Tempan V90-94, Nicola profiles Clitheroe Castle parkrun and Danny got his 32 for the Wilson Index at Sizewell parkrun.

In this episode we discuss... Neil’s background in the British Navy and his personal journey in the nuclear industry Neil’s work as a system engineer at Sizewell The Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) and its work to increase a power plant’s capacity factor and uptime Understanding a plant’s realtime risk profile EPRI’s relationship with the nuclear industry and where it gets its funding EPRI’s research surrounding operations and maintenance cost as well as capital cost EPRI’s long term work supporting small modular reactors Gen IV reactors and what we need to do now to support their implementation in the coming decades

Uranium is the fuel for nuclear power stations, which generate carbon-free electricity, but also radioactive waste that lasts a millennium. In the latest in our series looking at the world economy from the perspective of the elements of the periodic table, Justin Rowlatt travels to Sizewell in Suffolk, in a taxi driven by a former uranium prospector.He is given a tour of the operational power station, Sizewell B, which generates 3% of the UK's electricity, by EDF's head of safety Colin Tucker, before popping next-door to the original power station, Sizewell A, where he speaks to site director Tim Watkins about the drawn-out process of decommissioning and cleaning up the now-defunct reactors.But while Sizewell remains reassuringly quiet, the big explosions come at the end of the programme. We pit environmentalist and pro-nuclear convert Mark Lynas against German Green politician Hans-Josef Fell, the joint architect of Germany's big move towards wind and solar energy, at the expense of nuclear. Is nuclear a green option? It really depends whom you ask.

Uranium is the fuel for nuclear power stations, which generate carbon-free electricity, but also radioactive waste that lasts a millennium. In the latest in our series looking at the world economy from the perspective of the elements of the periodic table, Justin Rowlatt travels to Sizewell in Suffolk, in a taxi driven by a former uranium prospector. He is given a tour of the operational power station, Sizewell B, which generates 3% of the UK's electricity, by EDF's head of safety Colin Tucker, before popping next-door to the original power station, Sizewell A, where he speaks to site director Tim Watkins about the drawn-out process of decommissioning and cleaning up the now-defunct reactors. But while Sizewell remains reassuringly quiet, big explosions come at the end of the programme. We pit environmentalist and pro-nuclear convert Mark Lynas against German Green politician Hans-Josef Fell, the joint architect of Germany's big move towards wind and solar energy, at the expense of nuclear. Is nuclear a green option? It really depends whom you ask. (Photo: Perdiodic table)