Stack 'em high, Sell 'em cheap, and be dammed with the consequences

Hello

Well October is almost over, and an interesting (or lucky) month it's been in the world of Nuclear power. Australian Prime Minister John Howard seems even more intent then our own Mr Blair at ramming Nuclear Power down the throat of the voters. Not content with just that, but Australia has recently signed a £100 million a year deal to sell Uranium to China.

It was a particularly bad month (well I'm hoping this isn't normal at least!) for the mighty US of A on the Nuclear Power front. In just October alone, it had to shut down 3 reactors scattered round the country in Phoneix, Dallas and Surry (Virginia).

St Peterburgs reputation as a tourist destination could have been somewhat tarnished if one plant in Russia hadn't been shut down also.

Thankfully, whatever those foreginers can do, we can do right here in the UK too. We managed two fairly serious incidents in the UK. Perhaps the most worrying line from the report being "The company said at the time that it was unlikely to carry out inspections and repairs at all the units simultaneously because of a lack of manpower."!!!!! Perfetic. Strangely I heard nothing through the UK media I watch/read about this.

And my point? Just that Nuclear power plants will malfunction, and that we're totally reliant on the safety systems to work(or in the case of Forsmark-Sweden shut down on my last post about Nuclear power, a rather quick thinking engineer who overrided a safety system!) or massive consequences will happen. A bit different to if a coal plant burns down or a wind turbine breaks.

Cheers

Andy

(Not so) Great Britain

There's been an unusual amount of press coverage on how Brtiain compares with our European neighbours recently. I thought I'd sum it up below:

• Britain is now the fattest nation in Europe
• Britain is now the most debt ridden nation in Europe (and by a long way at double the European average)
• Britain is the most wasteful nation in Europe

Now to get one of these could just be one of those things, but to get all three... well it has to speak about some core fundamental problems that the average (though not every) British person has?

So I wondered what it was? My first thought was "Laziness", that explains fat and wasteful easily, but debt ridden? I wasn't convinced it explain that. My next thought was "Selfish", that explained wasteful and debt ridden (I deserve a new sports car), but not fatness so well.

Then I struck upon "Impatient"

• Most bad foods are quick foods whether they be chocolate bars or microwave meals. Your average Brit can't "spare" the time to cook a proper meal regularly as there's so much on TV to watch!
• Waiting 6 months till you can actually afford your next major purchase, rather than simply adding it to your credit card and getting it now, is simply to long for your average Brit.
• Your average Brit doesn't think twice about the wasted energy used simply to save them spending 3 seconds to turn the TV on and off or driving to work 3 miles away when there is a bus every 15 mintues.

Which leads me to my last question. Are you an "average" Brit?