Appologies if this is already common knowledge, and/or of no interest to mo= st, but I have heard that EDF are out of the UK nuclear scheme, along with = another firm (didn't quite catch who, sounded like Ucamm or something, but = no real idea) due to lack of profit available.
Apparently the contracts are going to Chinese firms to do the building. I w= as surprised by this, but was told this is not a bad thing as they will use= local experts and building contractors, and are using British designs for = the reactors (PWR?). I was told that the Chinese have very good expertise i= n the building of reactors - they have built more in China in 5 years than = Europe has in 30. ( Probably not much of a claim, really, seeing as E= uropean govts. seems to be full of emotion-driven technological illiterates= . What bites me is that it is apparent that the government STILL has no ide= a about getting native companies to do the work, and not to leak more money= , AND they still cannot grasp the vital importance of electrical supply to = national security. What a bunch of ill-educated tossers. )
Canadian firms were considered, but their nuclear industry is big enough...= for their market.
On a not-totally-unrelated point, I read on Tim Minchin's twitter feed (yea= h yeah, call me names...) the following in regards to the nonsense hoo-har = over comedian Jimmy Carr's tax affairs:
"Should add: hating the incumbent govt's use of your tax doesn't excuse avo= idance. Vote them out. You live in a social democracy."
Cheers.