Radiation risk puts a cloud over nuclear energy use

Sir, – I did not find Professor Jill Belch’s letter of November 23 rude. In fact, I re-read it a couple of times to see what had upset one of your constant correspondents, Clark Cross.

Like most forms of technology, costs reflect the number of units produced. Retrofitting heat pumps will always cost more than being built in with the house. Unfortunately, under a Lib Dem housing convener initiative, several heat pumps were put into a few new-build Perth and Kinross Council houses more than a decade ago but then that policy was abandoned.

With the growing cost ofliving crisis, councils should be future-proofing newbuilds and retrospectively introducing heat pumps where they will be effective and also retrofitting insulation in their hard-to-heat houses.

I don’t actually care who says nuclear energy is green. You cannot look at one aspect of fuel in isolation.

Mr Cross may fancy nuclear power, but I would rather that the sheep (and the people) don’t glow in the dark. He may be too young to remember Chernobyl when we were advised not to eat the food or milk, or the sheep in the Borders too radioactive for the farmers’ to sell them.

But due to the fighting in Ukraine the radioactivity at Chernobyl has peaked 20 times in the last year, not to mention Putin’s death-wish policy of having his troops fire on nuclear power stations.

Leaks in nuclear power stations aren’t meant to happen. One German power station was closed down in September due to leaks. There have been 13 leaks from US nuclear power stations since the start of this century. One leak is one too many.

And allegedly the British nuclear power stationproposed design built by French manufacturers has had to be altered recently after the same design caused problems in China.

However, the worst nuclear disaster in history took place in Japan in 2011 at the Fukushima plant.

Who can forget the images of the poor Japanese parents going out into their gardens with geiger counters to check the outside radiation before letting their children leave the “shelter” of their homes to play.

Nuclear power has been around for quite a while but only accounts for 10% of the global energy output, down from a high of 17.5% in 1996, so was in a steep decline due to safety concerns long before this current war-induced energy crisis. Renewables are at 29% and growing. Why? Because they are cleaner and greener.

No way is nuclear radiation safe, and its pollution is not in any way green.

There are now such things as eco-friendly fuels for fires and multi-fuel fires. In particular, coffee grounds which are handy if you haven’t had your chimney blocked up or fire-stoves removed. This is important because a lot of older properties have inadequate heating and insulation.