Scotland on Sunday Readers' Letters: Using nuclear power to meet our energy needs is too dangerous

In his letter (Scotland on Sunday, 6 February) William Loneskie promoted the introduction of small nuclear power stations which manufacturer Rolls-Royce hopes will be commissioned by the UK Government and built near our cities and large towns. Mr Loneskie states that these stations could produce electricity for 60 years.

Abandoned gas masks on the floor in a school in the deserted town of Prypyat, adjacent to the Chernobyl nuclear site (Picture: Sergey Supinski/AFP via Getty Images)

Regretfully that’s not all they will produce. Like all nuclear reactors they will produce deadly radioactive waste which will remain lethal for over 50,000 years. We don’t have a clue about how to safely store and manage the nuclear waste we have created in the last 80 years and we should not be considering adding to that lethal and extremely expensive problem.

These stations would also be targets for terrorists but the Windscale fire (1957), Three Mile Island meltdown (1979), Chernobyl explosion (1986) and the Fukushima disaster which put an end to the building of nuclear power plants in Japan (2011), show that it doesn’t need terrorists to turn nuclear power stations into tools of mass destruction.

John F Robins, Cardross, Argyll and Bute

Pay later

So the Westminster Chancellor of the Exchequer is to use his "magic money tree" to pay energy providers £200 in October, for every household on their books, dressed up as a reduction to “our” bills. But we, the householders, are expected to repay that compulsory loan of £200 over the following five years.

The Westminster government has also allowed the energy companies a 54 per cent rise in the energy cap whilst, in France, their government has told the state-owned EDF to limit price rises to four per cent. For the avoidance of doubt: if you happen to be an EDF customer here, that four per cent limit does not apply to you – only to customers in France.

As petrol and diesel prices shot up due to supply shortages last year, but show no signs of coming back down – why do I think that the new, higher, charges for household power will not come down after we've “repaid” that £200? Especially as that same Chancellor – reputed to be the richest man in the House of Commons" – is also advising us that "higher energy prices are something we have to adjust to".

Ian Waugh, Dumfries, Dumfries and Galloway

Facts and figures

Already we have disagreement as to whether England would continue to pay state pensions to Scots after independence. Our First Minister says no, this would fall to Scotland; while Ian Blackford MP, her spokesman at Westminster, disagrees.

This is typical of the hundreds of such arguments and uncertainties, and unexpected outcomes, that would slowly unfold as the process of independence proceeded; while Scotland itself – in a state of international commercial uncertainty – would have a hard time financially while trying to get into the EU. The independence argument urgently needs proper facts and figures.

Malcolm Parkin, Kinnesswood, Perth and Kinross

Green parking

The proposed new unlimited parking charges at work approved by the SNP/Green coalition will be the straw that breaks the camels back for those in rural areas of Scotland where bus services are poor or non-existent.

This is another "Green" paper from Holyrood that will have many consequences for Scottish workers.

Dennis Forbes Grattan, Bucksburn, Aberdeen

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