Our coal industry has been closed down because mines in other thirld world countries can pay miners just £40 pw whereas our Brit miners want £400.
Do you think we should pay our miners £40 a week? Maybe we could whip them as well.
Nuclear IS NOT the way forward. Tidal lagoons is:
On average only about 40% from an oil field is extracted because of the uneven shapes of the caverns. More flexible pipes are being employed to extract about twice as much, which means the North Sea has twice as much oil. So not all doom and gloom.
But, peak "crude" oil is reality. In less than a century about half the world's crude oil reserves have been exhausted. Could be a serious problem. The UK can use 100% electricity for everything including all transport and heating, etc by using tidal lagoons.
The UK can get all its power from tidal lagoons built into the Irish Sea. It is largely a matter of dumping rock in the sea on an unprecedented scale. British engineers can manage that OK, and the British Isles geography is the best in the World for such an undertaking. It involves moving about 2500 million tons of rock to the Irish Sea, creating tidal lagoons to supply 100% of Britain and Ireland's electricity needs.
The numbers are staggering but possible. A heavy train can move perhaps 500 plus tons of rock so about 4 or 5 million train loads are needed. The UKs waste can be dumped into the lagoon walls too while under construction. The scale is no less than the laying of rail systems through the UK in the 1800s - trackbed, rails, trains, stations, bridge, tunnels, etc.
Tidal lagoons are both the long-term answer and they are more acceptable politically. It would take maybe 30 railways to haul rock from say 30 large quarries over 25 years to meet 100% of Britain's need for energy. 2500 million tons of rock and 25% of the Irish Sea. This is clearly possible and mostly involves hauling rock from mountains to sea on an unprecedented scale. New valleys can be created also with new lakes and fresh water reservoirs, so great knock on effects. Britain's engineers are easily up for that challenge. The walls built can also be bridges and anti tidal surge barriers too. There are many knock on benefits.
The plan would be similar to the rise of the railways in the UK, when from 1830 to 1860 most of the UK was covered. A massive engineering undertaking in every aspect, of train making, and the civil side.
The insides of hills and mountains can be cut out for the rock and lakes constructed top and bottom to make provision for instant use peak time hydro stations and fresh water reservoirs - half time energy peaks in major football games on TV.
The UK can then run super-fast electric Maglev trains city centre to city centre, that can replace air travel and oil usage, without any problems in running costs. In fact propeller planes using electric motors and the more efficient battery sets could be used for island hopper planes.
Fuel poverty and pollution is then a thing of the past.