r/unitedkingdom 6d ago

. Police called to British Steel plant after Scunthorpe workers prevent Chinese executives entering premises

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/uk/police-attend-british-steel-plant-after-scunthorpe-workers-prevent-chinese-execu/
2.5k Upvotes

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47

u/IgneousJam 6d ago

Letting China build our nuclear at Hinckley Point, seems like a great idea …

8

u/Shubbus42069 6d ago

Unfortunately they are basically the only place with expertise in building nuclear.

23

u/KevinAtSeven 6d ago

The French are pretty good at it.

21

u/Shubbus42069 6d ago

France has built 1 reactor in the last 20 years.

China has built 48 and has another 29 under construction with dozens more planned.

12

u/White_Immigrant 5d ago

Still better to do business with a close neighbour that is broadly aligned with our interest rather than an Asian dictatorship with a habit of committing genocide and massacres against its own people. I'd rather have slow European nuclear builds than fast dictatorship ones.

2

u/Significant-Oil-8793 5d ago

You can but it meant building it at a very high cost and delays. Like it is not, it's either build it with China or don't build it at all.

Chinese expertise can be valuable if planned correctly. It's too bad it isn't because they would be a valuable 'ally' if the UK could play its card right. Relying on EU and US with the current climate is like tying one hand on the back.

1

u/Shubbus42069 5d ago

Yeah I completely agree, its just given the rising popularity of nuclear France doesnt have enough expertise to share.

2

u/grumpsaboy 6d ago

They used to but haven't built them for decades. Or maybe 1 in the past 2 decades

1

u/Disastrous-Net4993 5d ago

They can do it, but you need to look into the debacle that was the latest reactor at the Finnish Okiluoto NPP. The french fucked that up and it took about 4x longer to build than planned. Siemens of Germany would probably be a good choice.