Birdwatch

Nuclear future

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WHILE I sympathise with, and even applaud, Lucy McRobert’s plea to save Minsmere RSPB, Suffolk (Birdwatch 343: 62), I fear her zeal is misplaced. I have enjoyed visits to Minsmere for many years, but there is a far bigger issue here than damage to a single site, however significan­t and loved.

On a cold winter’s night with a calm sea and no wind, just when demand is highest, renewable energy contribute­s effectivel­y nothing, and battery storage is expensive and environmen­tally harmful at the production and disposal stages, though hopefully progress can be made here. A carbon-zero future has to include nuclear power to supply most if not all of the base load.

Readers concerned about the dangers of nuclear power should look beyond scare stories and examine the exemplary safety and environmen­tal record of the industry, and this includes Chernobyl, Windscale, Three Mile Island and Fukushima on the down side. Readers may well have enjoyed visits to Dungeness or Cemlyn Bay, reserves which have thrived for many years alongside nuclear power plants.

Nuclear power is expensive, especially when decommissi­oning costs are properly included, but the world has changed and we have to pay more for a better future. The average UK household spends as much, if not more, on entertainm­ent, gambling, alcohol and tobacco as it does on energy.

Lucy rightly warns against ‘nimbyism’, and if we really want to protect the environmen­t and wildlife we all love for the long term I suggest that we should think hard before signing the petition. Paul

Mostyn, via email

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