xaxa

I agree with all you said. Porthcawl has been always quite run down by welsh small town standards, and it certainly experienced dramatice dive since 2008, but still it benefits from prime coastal location within its surroundings (Rhoose/Penarth, Swansea City being the closest residential on-shore places). Coity is ok, Litchard could be also, but in this case rough parts are just too close to my liking. Am I right if these are also firmly out of 150k bracket? As I said the whole area does not seem like very good value when you compare local wages to house prices, except of really undesirable parts.

I lived in porthcawl for 3 years and know area south of M4 fairly well. From my point of view the best bets are * Porthcawl, albeit it is not very good value compared to places of similar size in many much more affluent rural places of England. The relatively high prices stem from Porthcawl being one of very few of place with direct waterfront between Cardiff and Swansea (IMHO). * Area of bridgend around Merthyr Mawr road (between the park and A473) + White Rock, although I never heard this name, really nice older houses, however it may be difficult to find anything in your price bracket. * perhaps you could find more value in smaller places south of Bridgend - Ewenny, Corntown, Kenfig, Treoes * laleston - very nice, very expensive, very likely not reachable for you * I would have a look at Broadlands area, which being recent build may be more affordable, I drove past few times and it looks reasonably nice (for a newbuild shoebox area, that is). However you should do your own research on potential troubles (chavs, ASB, etc.). All these places are quite well linked transport-wise by reasonable non congested roads. I would definitely avoid any areas north of the railway line (heavy infestation by scum, although there are few nicer pockets, its not worth it) and west of Kenfig village (stench from chemical works) this is right on top of M4.

"Loss" or "Damage", there are endless jokes about it Actually it is a surname of one of the founders who bought the company in 19th century. Btw, don't hold your breath, SaS is very small party with very limited support, even though their share of power is disproportionately large, because of very precarious coalition. Should there be need the biggest opposition party will vote for bailout if concessions are agreed. Mr. Sulik is an interesting guy, no doubt he is one of the brighter bunnies in the Slovak politics, but it would be unwise to overestimate him. Definitely he is the only standing out figure of SaS party, which is known for their turning of coats - they made a lot of very populistic promises before elections but post elections they dropped almost all of them. Mr Sulik lived in Germany where his parents fled the communism. After he came back to Slovakia he founded quite successful business (although very uninventive, but who am I to judge...), which he sold since then. He is one of the figures in Slovak politics who actually has experience in running legal and successful business (there are many more patrons who are involved in very shady businesses). Although I have read somewhere in this thread that he studied in Germany as well, I think it is a bit exagerrated, as far as I know he graduated in Economy only in Slovakia after his business was actually successful.

I live in Switzerland. Earn swissies but spend most in Euroland. If you think CHF 22 a pizza is expensive you ain't seen nothing yet. In Zurich get prepared for CHF 32 a pop at a decent Pizzeria next to the lake. The percieved price difference compared to other countries is mostly due to currency appreciation which central bank is reluctant to supress at the moment. The country can afford it because it is to certain extent self contained economy which is much less dependent on import of raw materials than the UK (fuel, etc.), or at least these imports are balanced by high valued exports. You would be surprised how many manufacturers of building materials, precise electronics are actually Swiss based, or founded by Swiss. If there were not enough opportunities to spend your earning in Switzerland, the currency would inevitably fall compared to others. Also every single town or village has functioning manufacturing outfits unlike most of the UK. Another reason is that the government is not running fiscal deficit.

In most countries in EU, it is not legally possible to register RHD vehicle. except in cases when LHD version of the vehicle are not produced, or temporarily for up to 1 year in some places. So what you have seen were most likely cars destined to the likes of Albania, Serbia, etc.

INES-8 does not exist (at the moment at least)

It IS a permanent exclusion zone. Those who were forced to leave will never return. Most likely, there will be additional enclaves, which will have to be stripped of soil and possibly abandoned too.

There are few more nuclear plants on diesel power: NHK World

Your post is full of alarmist BS, mate. The corium in Chernobyl is cold. The only way it could be hot would be if it was critical, and believe me you would know about it because of these small pricks - neutrons. And people would not be going for tourist trips there. Do you know physical prerequisite for nuclear explosion. I know. Set aside the fact the corium is cold,mixed with maybe 100x its volume of impurities and not going to burn anywhere. To get a nuclear blast elaborate and precise machine (geometry, explosives, etc.) is required and above all highly enriched fissile material. Even if you have few kg of highly enriched plutionium, throwing it into fire or water would do nothing.

Attached are radiation measurements of a Swiss Civil Protection agency. Red line is gamma radiation, Blue vertical lines is rainfall in mm. Can you see how red line jumps every time there is a bit of rain? Do you have such measurements published in UK?

Core has been already damaged within first hour of a power outage. The fact they allowed the hydrogen to ignite only exacerbated the issue by possibly damaging some vital piping as well.

This is actually an interesting piece of information. I did not bother to verify its credibility, just taken it from zerohedge site. One interesting reading is Reactor pressure which shows that units 2 and 3 have negative pressure compared to atmospheric pressure meaning that the pressure vessel has been breached. Second intersting value is the absolute Containment vessel pressure reading for units 2 and 3 which is approx. 0.1 MPa = atmospheric pressure It is quite clear that both reactore vesser and containment have been breached in units 2 and 3, most likely by ejected corium. Low water level readings are most likely due to failed sensors or resolidified crust which formed in place where core once was, blocking the flow of cooling water.

I would like to see the actual study, instead of pre-digested articles like this. I could not find any link, do you have one? All I found were references to her book (which as not peer reviewed publication does not count as a study or scientifically significant, I am afraid) and several short article predominantly in radiophobia filled green terrorist outlets. I am well aware of the dangers but statements you quoted are rather sensational, therefore I would like to see the hard evidence supporting it.

They have "ultimate water-tank" nearby, you know

I would like to share your optimism, but unfortunately it is unfounded. You don't believe official INES rating of it, do you? Anyone in nuclear industry who didn't see INES 7 on the wall two weeks ago, should have their head checked. It is intentionally controlled in order to contain panic. They cannot say: "hey, we have 10x chernobyl here, at your doorstep, keep calm", can they?. We are yet to see the outcome of this, but clearly it still has the potential, and likelyhood, indeed, to become the worst one. Unlike other people here, I don't think the loss of 6 reactors at F1 would mean the loss of all reactors at F2. F2 is more than 10 miles away, so neutrons are not going to be a problem, the only issue is the fallout, which should be manageable, unless most unfavourable conditions occur. Keep in mind that in chernobyl 3 remaining reactors continued operating for 15 years after the accident at the same site. But still, I would like to have some of those missiles ready in case the worst happens, as I mentioned before.