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The National
11 hours ago
- Politics
- The National
Scotland wants no part in further dangerous nuclear experiments
In 1987, I attended a Venstre political conference in Norway where Professor Torbjorn Sikkeland, the distinguished nuclear physicist and radiation biophysicist, explained, with illustrations, that nuclear fuels and nuclear waste would never be safely or securely contained: they are simply too corrosive. At the same conference, Professor Sikkeland also declared that it was accepted by his colleagues that hydrogen was the answer to world energy needs but it was unlikely to emerge as an option while the nuclear lobby stood in the way of necessary research and investment. READ MORE: Tommy Sheppard: Why I can't trust carbon capture or nuclear power to save us 30 years later, radiation corrosion still plagues nuclear reactors wherever and however they are built; there is still no safe containment for the corrosive nature of nuclear waste In 2025, however, despite the 40-year-old commitment to the common sense and morality of the Flowers Report, we now have a desperate government in Westminster: economically bankrupt, at the mercy of whatever corporate lobbyists come their way. Together, inexplicably, with the GMB, thrashing about for some sort of apparent direction, they have lurched towards another dangerous white nuclear elephant at Sizewell which, like EDF at Hinkley Point, no private enterprise will touch without massive, foolish government guarantees of unlimited funding – no matter how much overspend is required. Unquantifiable costs include decommissioning and waste disposal. The well-documented, appalling environmental consequences of uranium mining and nuclear dumps like the Dounreay Shaft and Drigg in Cumbria are clear evidence against the latest surge of pressure from the nuclear lobby. And Orkney and Galloway will remember that they are already targeted as 'sacrificial communities' for both uranium mining and high-level nuclear waste dumps. READ MORE: Energy minister 'won't apologise' for investment in nuclear power For nuclear waste, as we were warned, there is still no solution beyond digging deep holes in order to hide it – out of sight and out of irresponsible minds – for other generations to deal with. On this issue, the Flowers Report's references to morality are clearly lost on the current Westminster Labour administration. Furthermore, their increasingly desperate shrieks, demanding that the Holyrood government allows them to use Scotland for more nuclear reactors, missiles and nuclear waste, demonstrate very powerfully that Scotland is now firmly on a totally different political, cultural, economic, and environmental course. With EU support, our commitment to sustainable energy production is already far better established: we export more electricity than we can use; and we are working on the green hydrogen solution to storage which – were we already independent – would surely have precluded the Westminster-funded, profiteering cowboys currently playing around with potentially lethal lithium battery storage all over the Highlands. Westminster, flailing around with post-Brexit bankruptcy, does not have a meaningful energy, environment or defence policy: it has just broadcast its latest version of panicky, ridiculous and dangerous ideas. Scotland should have nothing to do with them – but continue calmly with policies which bypass more failed nuclear experiments and the production of nuclear waste that no-one, still, knows how to contain. Frances McKie Evanton
The National
13-06-2025
- Business
- The National
We will pay a high price for nuclear power we do not need
Nuclear power is expensive and almost always delivered late and over budget. Hinkley Point C has recently had its start-up delayed from 2027 to 2030 and its cost increased from £34bn to £46bn. As Sizewell C uses the same design, its costs will be similar. Notably, the Government has no partner who will commit to these costs. The taxpayer will pick up most of the bill. The electricity produced is likely to cost at least £220/MWh – around three times the cost per MWh of wind and solar. If these electricity costs are charged across the whole of GB, Scotland will be lumbered with additional bills when it produces far cheaper energy and will never need nuclear power again. READ MORE: Israel launches second wave of major strikes on Iran The introduction of zonal pricing of electricity would ensure Scotland pays for electricity at what it costs here and exclude the cost of nuclear plants in the south of England which will produce electricity never used in Scotland. I leave the environmental arguments to others to make. Gordon Morgan via email KEIR Starmer, the British establishment's latest useful idiot, announced that the UK Government would 'invest' another £14.2bn of public money into the Sizewell C nuclear power plant white elephant whose price tag is £40bn and counting. Proponents will tell you that nuclear is required for 'baseload' supply because renewable energy can't be stored. Wrong. It can be stored using several technologies, some of which have been around since the 19th century. And some renewable energy sources, such as tidal, don't need to be stored because they are constantly available. Apart from being far more expensive to develop and operate than renewable energy, nuclear power's Achilles' heel is that no-one knows what to do with the waste. Scotland's land and water are already contaminated with toxic radioactive waste from nuclear power plants, submarines and munitions dumps. So why do Westminster and Unionist politicians love this flawed and dangerous technology? First, the nuclear industry funds them to promote it. Rachel Reeves has just raided £2.5bn from the £8.3bn GB Energy budget to develop small modular reactors that are not commercially viable anywhere in the world. Second, the technology used to enrich uranium for nuclear power plants is the same technology for enriching uranium for nuclear weapons. Nuclear power is a national virility symbol to show that the flaccid and failing UK is still a 'great power'. And Scotland is a convenient dumping ground for the poisonous waste. The 1976 Flowers Report concluded the pursuit of nuclear power was morally wrong. By failing to accept its findings, the failing UK exposes its moral bankruptcy. Leah Gunn Barrett Edinburgh READING last Saturday's letters pages, with Councillor Gordon Murray's call for united action for independence and Peter Macari's denunciation of Starmer's war cries, was a morale booster. If John Swinney is not listening to his own activists, then he is not going to be listening to the wider Yes movement, which is apparently polling at 54%. So what can we do to develop action for our next crack at indy in 2026? (Image: Jeff J Mitchell) Councillor Murray's call for unity and a citizens' convention makes good sense and has been reiterated across the Yes movement including Alba. Gordon refers to the SNP 2023 promise but clearly it has fallen on deaf ears within the SNP leadership. Perhaps what is required is a pincer movement around the block to independence. How to bring this about? Should we bring together the councillors, MSPs, MPs (current and former) who support a citizens' convention on independence and bring in trade unions, civic, voluntary organisations and religious representatives as happened under Canon Kenyon Wright? As the evidence of Scotland's colonial status has been collected for the United Nations Decolonisation Committee, It has been shown that we need evidence of representative democratic organisations calling for independence. Peter Macari's timely letter about Starmer's militarisation of the UK economy highlights an issue of singular importance. It would be an economic and political disaster for Scotland already teetering on the brink of the disappearance of civic shipbuilding. Starmer's values do not align with Scottish aspirations and cultural values of equality and community as Peter so wisely sets out. The very existence of BAE on the Clyde and the 2014 Westminster promises of warships and submarines to sustain shipbuilding expose the reality of a coloniser getting the colonised to build its war machine. If the current leadership of the SNP refuses to call a citizens' convention, we must surely do so with those of some democratic standing who are prepared to move forward. Maggie Chetty Glasgow
