Gas and steam

StEuart Campbell (Letters, 14 September) infers that nuclear power is “advanced technology” when it simply boils water to make steam to turn turbines. That is more 19th-century technology.

He also tries to play down the danger. Tell that to the Japanese people who face many deaths and decades of desecration and financial outlay trying to deal with the radiation from a power station complex nature destroyed.

How about the targets they present for suicide bombers and terrorists?

On the same day Struan Stevenson MSP implied that the “race for renewables” is driving electricity prices up. He is a member of the party that privatised gas and electricity to make them “more competitive”.

What we have now is six companies sharing the same gas pipes and electricity cables and all ­offering the same high prices.

So much for the promise of “competition”. Imagine the ­bargaining power of one gas or electricity company representing all of us in negotiating price with, say, the Russians for their natural gas.

The way ahead for electricity must be through renewables, particularly through wave power and, yes, wind power.

I am increasingly weary of those who suggest that wind turbines are spoiling our scenery. They are more attractive than anything in the Tate Modern and enhance many a bleak moorland.

Brian Hunter

Liberton Place

Edinburgh