Pages

Thursday, 1 August 2024

A question of context



Rolls-Royce boss says UK must move fast to be world leader in small reactors

Britain risks repeating the mistakes of the past if delays in rolling out small nuclear reactors persist, the chief executive of Rolls-Royce has said, urging the new Labour government not to pass up the chance to develop a world-leading industry.

Speaking as Rolls-Royce upgraded profit guidance and restored its dividend, sending the company’s shares to a record high, Tufan ErginbilgiƧ said British homes could be powered by its first small modular reactor (SMR) by 2031, if the government commissions the first of them this year.

But he highlighted delays in the competition process run by Great British Nuclear, warning that the UK must learn from its failure to become a global leader for offshore wind technology.



Those paying attention will have noted the dispiriting words "move fast" applied to government activity. Unfortunately the words don't quite fit the context.

4 comments:

dearieme said...

Any politician chattering inanely about Britain becoming a "world leader" is out to defraud you. Boris was prone to it too.

Sam Vega said...

"the UK must learn from its failure to become a global leader for offshore wind technology."

That's a failure? I call it dodging a bullet, at least as far as our own energy supply is concerned.

Doonhamer said...

If he really wanted taxpayers money he should have emphasised the potential boost this project would have given to all the usual woke stuff.
Maybe provided the vast amount of electricity needed for oxygen and carbon capture, hydrogen production,

When was the last time that some government sponsored ground breaking engineering development succeeded? Come on now. There must be one. Liquid crystal displays? The magnetron? Lasers?

A K Haart said...

dearieme - we're not even a world leader in propaganda, even the exaggerations are out of date.

Sam - yes, more of a bullet dodged. I bet Ed Miliband tries to stick his oar in. Quite mad.

Doonhamer - we should probably count ourselves lucky that in the past, governments were not quite so keen to lurch around sponsoring failure.