14 DAY TRIAL // It would appear that Russia is a surprisingly busy bee these day. Thus, it has emerged that the country has taken such a liking to the United Kingdom's landscape that it is thinking of helping make it even prettier than it already is by erecting a nuclear power station.
Media reports say that the news that Russia wishes to build a nuclear facility in the United Kingdom has reached the general public after Hergen Haye, the head of new nuclear development at the Department of Energy and Climate Change, had a fairly interesting chat with Edinburgh University students.
It was during this meeting that Hergen Haye told folks at the Edinburgh University that the Russian state nuclear company has some very big plans for the future, and that these plans include building a power station on the United Kingdom's territory.
“I can tell you that, behind closed doors and with microphones switched off, there are interesting debates happening in Whitehall,” Hergen Haye said, as cited by Business Green. “Russia wants to build a nuclear power station in the UK,” he added.
Talking to the Edinburgh University students, the Department of Energy and Climate Change official wished to stress the fact that, even if Russia were to be granted permission to build a nuclear power station in the United Kingdom, it would be a while before one such project would actually be implemented.
In fact, Hergan Haye estimates that, all things considered, it will be at least one decade before a Russian VVER reactor sets up camp and becomes operational in this country.
Besides, he claims that one such initiative will surely be subject to bad publicity, despite the fact that, the way he sees things, said reactors are “perfectly safe.”
The good news is that, should Russia move to erect a nuclear power station in the United Kingdom, it would have to abide by the strictest of rules and regulations.
As a spokesperson for the Department of Energy and Climate Change explained in a recent statement, “The UK actively welcomes inward investment to our energy sector, but any energy company, nuclear or otherwise, that had an interest would need to meet all independent regulatory standards required in the UK and EU.”
The news about how the United Kingdom could soon house a brand-new Russian nuclear power station comes shortly after Greenpeace released a report saying that 44% of the reactors currently operating in Europe were old and decrepit, and listed the Brits among the nations in dire need of paying closer attention to what their energy sector was up to.