This is why we don’’t need nuclear power

MICHAEL Parkin’s letter of last week’s Herald on Sunday was titled “So why not adopt nuclear power?”.

Well, for the UK there are very good reasons why, at this moment the last route we should be taking for our future energy security is the nuclear route.

As of 2022, there are worldwide some 54 reactors under construction with another 100 being planned. Can we as a country be assured that we will be able to resource the necessary uranium fuel 10, 20 30 years down the line? No, we can’t. Over 50 per cent of the world’s uranium comes from just 10 mines in five countries – not a situation that gives one confidence for the decades ahead.

At the moment, the UK Government has to fund the decommissioning of nuclear sites at a sum of over £2 billion a year. That is year in, year out – with no clear termination dates in sight and over 16,000 of a workforce that effectively contributes nothing to our economy. This annual cost is for electricity that was generated decades ago. Meanwhile, as an island nation, we have the wonderful resource of tides lapping our shores twice a day with a cycle that is predetermined 365 days a year.

This tidal range power can be harnessed, as can be seen with the Swansea bay Tidal Lagoon project which as Boris Johnson would say is “oven ready”. It is nothing more than a hydro-electric power station but set in tidal waters. It can deliver four cycles of renewable power in any 24 hours.

With 12 hours’ difference in the tides between Cornwall and Caithness, we could have an array of lagoons up and down our coastline providing the baseload energy so sought after.

And that is not even to mention the added benefits of coastal protection, aquaculture, sporting and leisure pursuits in spin-offs. Together with wind, solar and hydrogen production, the UK can truly become a renewables powerhouse to meet our future energy demands and our climate change targets.

Alex Dickson, Lochinver.