Britain & France Go Nuclear Whilst Welfare Benefit Claimants Go Homeless & Fracking For Gas In The UK Continues
Civil Nuclear Power
UK Prime Minister David Cameron has recently signed a landmark nuclear civil power agreement with France in order to co-operate with plans to construct a new generation of nuclear power plants throughout the UK.
Cameron believes that the new deal between Britain and France will create over 1,500 new jobs in Britain and stated:
"The deals signed today will create more than 1,500 jobs in the UK but they are just the beginning. My goal is clear. I want the vast majority of the content of our new nuclear plants to be constructed, manufactured and engineered by British companies. And we will choose the partners and technologies to maximize the economic benefits to the UK."
The UK government believe that this is just the beginning and that the deal could be worth up to £60 billion pound and could create up to 30,000 jobs in the nuclear power industry. Car manufacturer Rolls Royce are to sign a £400 million deal with french energy company Areva and will provide services to the first EPR reactor at Hinkley Point, Somerset and they are building a dedicated factory in Rotherham which is expected to create a further 1,200 jobs.
But can the civil nuclear power industry really be deemed as safe after the 2010 Fukushima disaster that happened in Japan?
Radiation pollution from the Japan incident was spread as far as the UK. As Japan struggled to contain the radiation leakage from the affected nuclear reactors, China, Indonesia, Thailand and South Korea were all adversely affected thereby having to test their food and supplies for dangerous levels of radiation - supplies which had been originally imported from Japan.
Considering the huge supply chain that the UK boasts, if such a disaster were to happen in Britain the consequences would be absolutely devastating to many countries, not just Britain alone. Although it's very rare that the UK is hit with earthquakes, and the country usually only gets minor ones when they do strike, a new energy-related practice is now happening throughout the UK which is significantly increasing the risk.
Fracking For Gas
Fracking is the practice of drilling deep down into the ground and fracturing deeply embedded hard rock, then injecting water, sand and chemicals into the hard rock at high pressures in order to release Shale gas.
This practice is already happening in the UK and it is believed that there could be a goldmine of hard rock buried beneath South Wales. Shale gas presents the opportunity to generate electricity at half of the carbon dioxide emissions of coal.
However, fracking remains a highly controversial practice.
In 2011 a geological report indicated that fracking was most likely responsible for triggering two minor earthquakes on the coast of Lancashire, UK. Cuadriller, the company responsible for carrying out the fracking, suspended their operations following the tremors but claimed that it was unlikely to happen again. However, fracking is also believed to cause contamination of water supplies.
So in Britains' new energy movement, Prime Minister David Cameron plans to install nuclear power plants throughout the UK in conjunction with France, whilst our energy companies have started fracking for gas - you don't need me to point out the obvious potential consequences of such a controversial move.
Benefit Claimants Go Homeless
All this comes after welfare benefits in the UK have been cut and new housing rules applied. Due to the new litigation brought in, in January 2012, single men under 35 years old (including those on sickness-related benefits) and renting in the private sector are now only entitled to £57 per week housing benefit, whereas the average cost of accommodation for a single man in the UK is closer to £100 per week, even if they are in custody of children for up to half of the week.
In addition, those in the private sector who are considered to be in secure accommodation can no longer apply to be housed by council housing associations. Many single men have become homeless as a result, many of them partly in custody of children.
- The average age of death for a homeless person in the UK is 45.
There are very few jobs in the UK at the moment and the fact is that anyone starting a new job needs to be able to fund their own lives for between two-to-four weeks before receiving any pay from their new job. However, the new welfare cuts have made this pretty much impossible for single men and single fathers.
Such men must contribute to their rent out of their welfare benefits, leaving them in a financial situation that doesn't allow them to pay their traveling and food expenses, in order to attain work. If they did pay those expenses then they would probably end up being made homeless anyway.
So, Britain's new energy movement aims to create thousands of jobs in order to repair Britain's economy yet many of the population who are actually seeking that work have been left homeless by the welfare benefit cuts. Additionally, the green environment-friendly ambitions that have been having peddled down our necks recently is being completely undermined by plans for nuclear power and fracking.
I think it's time we asked ourselves, are our governments really being honest with us?
By Sparkster
Related Hubs
