When I was a child in the 1950s and 1960s people would talk about purchasing items on the ‘ Never Never’.
i.e. By hire purchase.
This expression goes with the
‘Use Now and Pay Later’
way of thinking.
It also goes hand in hand with a way of thinking which includes
that of paying by credit card,
‘pay day loans’,
increasing personal loans
building up national debts,
and in turn the kind of global financial mess we are all so familiar
with right now.
The same principle also seems to apply when it comes to just how
we all will have to continue to pay to look after nukiller waste for
many centuries after these plants have been closed.
The Daily Mail has just published the following news story which
illustrates this point:-
The most toxic pond in Europe: Sellafield will cost £10bn to make safe.
In the same news story they point out that once the nuclear fuel is
removed from the newly decommissioned nukiller power plant at
Oldbury, that these used fuel rods will be stored untouched upon site until at least 2096.
That is some 84 years in to the future.
If nukiller power is the ultimate example of ‘built in obsolescence’,
then we really are going to take a long time to pay for it on the
Never Never.