Nuclear route

August Graham's report ( "UK must commit to nuclear or turn away", Scotsman, April 1) was quoting what Sir Dieter Helm said at the Policy Exchange meeting last week.

Professor Helm said that most nuclear power plants are built by governments, with government money and by government-owned companies. This is the only way to ensure that the wholesale cost of electricity is kept as low as possible, but the UK government seem unable to understand that this is the way forward.

I would totally disagree with Professor Helm that there is a choice to either "commit to nuclear or turn away." There is absolutely no alternative but to commit to a significant increase in nuclear energy capacity if we are to have any hope of reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The government commissioned a "Cost of Energy Review" which was published In October. 2017. Professor Helm chaired the review and concluded "the cost of energy is significantly higher than it needs to be to meet the government's objectives."

The government gave no cognizance of this review in 2017 and over the intervening five years no new nuclear plants were been commissioned because the Westminster government will not build and finance them to provide low cost electricity.

It can be concluded that the government have no credible energy policy and it is not

helped by the Scottish Government restating their objection to nuclear energy, which is confirmation that Scotland will never reach net zero in 2050 or any time thereafter. C SCOTT Edinburgh