Things fall apart

As if we already didn’t know, climate change is here, now. Widespread wild-fire and flooding has focused minds on the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) report which, perhaps unsurprisingly, confirms that as the world heats, ice stored at the poles and in glaciers melt and sea levels rise. 

In short, sea-level rise is significantly faster than previously thought. Meanwhile, predicted changes to storm patterns affecting ‘storm surge’ and river flow will drive ‘combined hazards’, making flood mitigation efforts increasingly obsolete. 

Because all UK nuclear military installations began operation well before global heating was considered in design or construction, near-term climate change risk to nuclear is very great.