China in talks to build UK nuclear power plants

[alp227]

Source: The Guardian

China is poised to make a dramatic intervention in Britain's energy future by offering to invest billions of pounds in building a series of new nuclear power stations.

Officials from China's nuclear industry have been in high-level talks with ministers and officials at the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) this week about a plan that could eventually involve up to five different reactors being built at a total cost of £35bn.

Greenpeace described the move as desperate, while others warned of security fears, but the government has been courting China as the UK atomic programme has been hit by rows over subsidies and worries that EDF –the French company with the most advanced plans to build new reactors in the UK –could be hampered by the change of government in Paris.

China has operated its own atomic plants since 1994. It is awash with cash from its hugely successful industrial expansion and sees the UK as a potential shop window for exporting its atomic technology and expertise worldwide.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jul/20/china-uk-nuclear-power-plants

[docgee]

1. I hope that doesn't mean any parts are made in China.

Anything made in China is consistently out of spec. Not even kidding a little.

[madrchsod]

3. never buy a ball bearing from china!

the latest disaster is the trucks they made for a canadian commuter car manufacturer have holes or cracks the hold the wheel bearings. seems no one in china to canada decided to qc the castings.

my son worked for a firm that rebuilt and built printing presses. they bought the frames from china and discovered the two sides were impossible to match up after machining.

in my town one of the oldest company that made large valves for the chicago water system in the early 1900`s to nuclear power plants went out of business after it started buying castings from china. the problem was they would spend several days machining only to find a hole in the casting. they lost business then the market slowed down and they sold off everything for scrap or probably china.

oh yes that make really cheap clothes pins...ya we don`t make clothes pins anymore

[madokie]

9. I've got a china made metal working lathe/mill

and if you look at it wrong it will break a part. I swear. What gets my goat is looking at it it looks like it is all smooth and shiny but if you bang against it with a piece of metal a chip will fall out of the paint and body putty, yup you got it, body putty like they use to smooth car bodies before they paint them. Well this lathe/mill has the same treatment. Once I accidentally bumped it with a piece of iron that might have weighed 20 pounds and a chunk of paint and body putty the size of a quarter came flying off. If I'd bought it new I'd have taken it back but since I bought it used I really have no recourse other than treat it with kid gloves. Anyways under the paint and body putty the casting is rough as hell. I worked at a foundry for 12 years and, not in production and not as an employee of theirs but as contract work and I can tell you that nothing in our foundries comes even close to the shoddy castings that the lathe/mill I have is made using. F**k china and everything they make. Its all trash, no quality control at all

[closeupready]

2. You get what you pay for.

Frightening but I don't live there, so hey.

[Flatulo]

4. That's very terrifying. I'm afraid to wipe my ass with Chinese toilet paper. nt

[alp227]

7. Hey hey please delete that last sentence right there.

I'm Chinese-American and majoring in computer engineering. Whoa.

[arikara]

6. Sweet Jesus

The thought of that is some scary. Nukes? I won't even buy toothpicks from China.

[Franker65]

8. Sceptical

Every toothpick in the store probably comes from China. Well, this plan might work if the Chinese are working under British supervision and regulation. I would still be quite sceptical of Chinese nuclear power plants in the UK.