The world’s most expensive power station project, a new nuclear reactor at Hinkley Point C in the UK, still hasn’t reached financial close, despite backing from the UK, French and Chinese governments. It might be best for the UK if … Continued
The Cambridge News interviewed me recently and you can read the result here: https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/nuclear-soap-opera-explained/story-28728745-detail/story.html
Nuclear energy brings a lot of problems but it is a necessary part of the fight against climate change * I recently did a webinar about the planned new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point in Somerset, based on part … Continued
The biggest topic in the global economy remains the oil price. It’s notoriously difficult to forecast commodity prices but how can we make sense of what would push the price up or down? A basic demand and supply framework gets … Continued
UK nuclear plant may be a game changer China Daily is an English language newspaper, available in many hotels in China and published abroad. It’s often seen as a window (sometimes a rather opaque one) into Chinese government thinking, as … Continued
A global commodity, in economic or investment terms, is a standardised, homogeneous good that sells for the same price everywhere, subject to transport costs and tax. Oil is the classic global commodity. A chart from the IMF World Economic Outlook, just … Continued
I recently took part in an interesting one day workshop at Churchill College on the future of nuclear power. My small contribution was a short presentation that tries to identify what it is that makes nuclear power currently all but … Continued
I recently contributed to a pamphlet on nuclear power, published by the think tank Politeia and launched at the House of Commons last week. The other two authors are Professor Roger Cashmore, Chairman of the UK Atomic Energy Authority, and … Continued
Externalities and missing markets Microeconomics, which is the economics of individual agents, companies and markets, argues that if certain conditions for well functioning markets are in place then there is little need or justification for government intervention. These conditions sometimes … Continued
EDF, the world’s largest quoted electric utility company, is also the leading operator of nuclear power stations, most of them in France but it now plans to build two in the UK. Nuclear power has had a somewhat volatile relationship … Continued
On 21 October 2013 the British government confirmed at last that it had agreed with the French power company EDF (Electricité de France) the building of two European Pressurised Water (EPR) nuclear reactors at Hinkley Point, near Bristol. The 3,200MW … Continued
This is the text of a talk I gave on 24 June 2013 to a group of nuclear experts, politicians and civil servants at the think tank Politeia in London. Nuclear power in the UK is at the sharp end … Continued