Nuclear or tidal? A crucial opportunity

WESTERN Mail readers may not know about a highly contentious nuclear power consultation, launched in the holidays and so far buried by Brexit. Details of the “Regulated Asset Base (RAB) model for nuclear” consultation (closes October 14) are at www. gov.uk/government/consultations/ regulated-asset-base-rab-model-fornuclear.

The consultation proposes imposing a nuclear levy on all UK electricity bills, to fund up front the construction of new nuclear power stations.

Why is this levy proposed? Because the foreign firms which would construct and operate these reactors cannot find financial backers.

Supposing that the British public was forced to pay for these moneyeating devices, those same firms would then happily take a profit on selling us the electricity generated.

What’s more, these so-called “entrepreneurs” would have profits guaranteed, because the levy wouldn’t just raise capital for new reactors – we understand the levy could be increased, making the public underwrite cost overruns.

So much for risk-taking: with all

the burden of uncertainty falling on the power consumer, a classic case of featherbedded capitalism.

Any organisation or individual may respond to this consultation; we urge the people of Wales to emphatically reject this nuclear levy. Nuclear stations are the cuckoos of power generation: consuming massive amounts of capital which could otherwise be invested in more benign and more efficient technologies, their operating inflexibility is the last thing one wants when a responsive grid is necessary for a green future.

Yes, investment is needed; but surely instead of nuclear power, which is toxic in so many respects, our nation would prefer a tidal power levy to fund the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon, a far sounder project offering Wales serious economic benefits?

We call for an alternative consultation, run from Cardiff, to settle this question quickly. Charles Mason The Environmental Network Pembrokeshire Eleanor Clegg Friends Of The Earth Pembrokeshire Christopher Jessop independent energy consultant, Marloes, Pembrokeshire