Burning Issue

Published on Monday 9 February 2009 20:51

Is Scotland right to reject a new generation of nuclear power stations?

Yes

SHIRLEY-ANNE SOMERVILLE

SNP MSP on the transport, infrastructure and climate change committee

SCOTLAND'S future is one of clean, green and renewable energy. With this month's news that Scotland is to play a key role in developing a North Sea super grid and the Scottish Government's commitment to developing new renewable technology through the 10 million Saltire Prize, the unseemly rush to nuclear by the UK government is completely out of place here.

In Scotland, there is the potential to build 16,000 jobs in green energy by 2020. New developments such as the world-leading Siadar marine energy project in the Western Isles announced last month and the two bio-energy plants being developed at Tullis Russell and Diageo in Fife put Scotland at the forefront of new green technology.

Scotland is on course to meet our initial target of 31 per cent of electricity from renewable energy by 2011 and 59 per cent by 2020 with the SNP Government approving 24 energy developments in the past 18 months – more than in the whole four years up to May 2007 – and the European Union's economic investment plan looking to Scottish energy developments to boost Europe's economy.

The Scottish Parliament has made clear it does not wish to see new nuclear power stations built in Scotland and several members of the Labour Party in Holyrood – including its environment spokesperson – have made their opposition known. Nuclear energy is contributing an ever-decreasing amount to Scotland's energy mix and, as an environmental impact assessment of the new generation of nuclear reactors in Finland shows, will create seven times as much waste.

No

MIKE O'BRIEN,

Labour MP and UK energy minister

RENEWABLES cannot fill the generation gap alone because their output tends to be intermittent. Nuclear power has been a vital and low-carbon part of the UK's energy mix for the past five decades.

One year on from the nuclear white paper, we are seeing significant investment in the UK.

New nuclear is not just good news for energy security and for tackling climate change, it is also good for the economy and good for business and it will create thousands of jobs. Each power station brings up to 9,000 jobs, and the estimated economic benefit is 2.8 billion.

This includes jobs in nuclear power stations, off-site jobs in corporate, business, and maintenance functions, construction jobs as well as jobs in the engineering and construction supply chains.

One of the government's objectives is to help create a globally competitive UK nuclear supply chain, focusing on high added value. This is particularly important in the current economic climate. We are working with the supply chain and nuclear reactor vendors and operators to assist in this process.

This nuclear investment, and these thousands of jobs, will go to England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Scottish Government opposes nuclear power. To remove nuclear power from the generation mix would threaten our ability to deal with the climate change challenges and increase the costs of doing it.

The Scottish Government's position inevitably means that Scotland won't benefit from the jobs or the billions of pounds of investment that each nuclear power station brings to an area.