Is the nuclear supply chain up to the job?

摘要

The last Magnox reactor is due to be switched off in December, nearly 60 years after Britain's first nuclear power station, Calder Hall in Cumbria, began generating. As the Magnox reactors have gradually been retired, so too have thousands of people skilled in building and running nuclear power plants. With crucial skills in short supply, the challenge of building the country's first new nuclear power station in a generation is daunting. The Chinese/French consortium funding the new plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset says that at least 60% of the supply chain used in its construction will be British.