Not Science Fiction

Who's submarines would be assigned to protect this $12-billion-plus (copper only cost) undersea UK investment?

Interconnector cables can be laid at over 30km a day. Each kilometer contains 800 tons of copper. "We will be dependent on imported energy." North Sea oil and gas are flagging. The cables "are an absolutely critical part of energy security and for low carbon energy", Hendry said. - Iceland's volcanoes may power UK:

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Energy minister Charles Hendry is to visit Iceland in May to discuss connecting the UK to its abundant geothermal energy. "We are in active discussions with the Icelandic government and they are very keen," Hendry told the Guardian. To reach Iceland, which sits over a mid-ocean split in the earth's crust, the cable would have to be 1,000 to 1,500km [932 miles] long and by far the longest in the world. Hendry has already met the head of Iceland's national grid about the plan.

The web of sea-floor cables – called interconnectors – planned for the next decade would link the UK to a Europe-wide supergrid, which is backed by the prime minister.

There are two existing international interconnectors, to France and the Netherlands, but nine more are either in construction, formal planning or undergoing feasibility studies. The next to open, in autumn 2012, will be a link between the Republic of Ireland and Wales, allowing green energy from the windswept Atlantic coast of Ireland to be delivered to British homes.

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Notes (for comparison):
1. Brazil will spend US$160 million by the end of next year on the development of a nuclear-propelled submarine to protect the oil reserves found recently off its coast, the defense minister said Friday.
2. COPPER PRICE WILL CROSS $11500 PER TONNE

Submarines are always silent and strange.