TODAY (February 23), France announced that the nuclear reactor at Flamanville, which had been scheduled to begin operating in 2013, would be delayed for another two years by a newly discovered design problem with "nozzles". It has already cost €14 billion: four times the original budget. President Macron has conceded that Flamanville 3 problems confirm that such nuclear projects are uneconomic and unsuccessful, demonstrated by the huge debts of EDF, the state-run French power company.
But such nuclear plumbing disasters – of corrosion and containment – are global and well understood, for they have plagued nuclear technology throughout its existence and have never been resolved. The Taishan nuclear project in China came to a stop in 2021 when fuel rod coverings were found to be inadequate. The trouble for Doug Maughan's defence of the nuclear industry (Letters, February 23) is that Taishan's problems have implications for the reactor at Hinckley in Somerset, currently years behind schedule and at least £2 Billion over budget, for it has a similar design.
As for Chernobyl, the public inquiry regarding a fast reactor reprocessing plant at Dounreay was in session when Chernobyl exploded. We were actually hearing evidence from the nuclear industry's risk assessor, assuring the inquiry that risks of serious accidents or explosion were so unlikely as to be almost impossible. His irony was apparently ingenuous but profound, not just from Chernobyl: he spoke fewer than eight miles from the infamous nuclear shaft which had exploded in May 1977.
Along with the equally notorious, diffuser-less Dounreay "waste pipe", that shaft has left Caithness a disastrous legacy of highly radioactive, unretrievable spent fuel particles on beaches and the seabed. One of the things hardest to forgive about all of that was, and still is, the deliberate suppression of information in the interest of sustaining public acceptance of nuclear experiments.
No, Mr Maughan, your case is not made. Chernobyl is only one in a long list of unacceptable, lethal nuclear disasters, not least the Windscale explosion in 1957. The problems continue as Fukushima discharges untold quantities of radioactive waste into the Pacific – already measurable inland in California.
Our Scottish Government is nevertheless clearly being harangued just now to accept some more nuclear experiments and assurances. It would be very wrong to do so.
Frances McKie, Evanton.
PRINCE WILLIAM'S SELLING POINTS
I AGREE with the sentiments of Adam Tomkins when he questions the rationale behind the maintenance of a hereditary monarchy as head of state ("Do we really need the monarchy’s next generation?", The Herald, February 23). The main reason for its continuance, however, is that it would require either a revolution or an Act of Parliament for its abolition and the majority of the British people are not up for that. One could reasonably add to that by saying that the Queen, through her devotion to duty and service, has improved its chances of continuing for some time yet.
In the article referred to, it is suggested that Prince William "needs a USP and fast". I believe that he has already got one and that is that he is not Prince Charles (whose charity is subject to police inquiry), he is not Prince Harry (abandoned ship), and he is not Prince Andrew (persona non grata).
Ian W Thomson, Lenzie.
BITE THE BULLET ON WORKPLACE PARKING
STUART Patrick is caught on the wrong side of the chicken and egg argument when it comes to the workplace parking levy ("Now is not the time for parking levy on workers", The Herald, February 24). He writes that bus services must be improved, and yes, most of us know they must be. Bus companies should be taken into public ownership and fares drastically reduced, if not removed. However, currently buses are delayed by the number of private cars on the road, both moving and parked. Priority bus lanes, which should be operative 24 hours per day, have been drastically reduced and pavement parking, including two wheels on and two wheels off, is rife, further reducing road space.
We all pay for the roads through general taxation, with motorists contributing a reducing amount to the national pot since there is no Vehicle Excise Duty on electric vehicles. The majority of motorists will continue to drive and to hog all the road space, despite knowing that they should be using the train, the bus or the bike, or even walking.
Something must be done to level the playing field and the workplace parking levy is one tool in the box.
The Scottish Parliament has had the courage to pass the workplace parking levy; our local authorities now need to bite the bullet and implement it, while at the same time using available powers to bring our bus services into public ownership.
Patricia Fort, Glasgow.
DEADLIEST DRUG IS LEGAL
DAVID J Crawford (Letters, February 22) does not acknowledge that the deadliest drug in Scotland is legalised; that is ethyl alcohol, which is considered by the World Health Organisation to be more addictive than heroin.
An ever-increasing toll from drugs in Scotland finds me ever more pessimistic about the outcome, especially if the SNP and supporters fail to face reality, that is total reality, about addictive drugs. Scotland's role in the alcohol business, domestic and foreign, should be curtailed.
William Durward, Bearsden.
ENGLAND FOREVER
FURTHER to the letters from Mike Bath and Steve Barnet (February 23), a conversation overheard in best Received Pronunciation of Southern England, in the foyer of a London theatre at the weekend: “Didn’t the English curling teams do well at the Olympics?” In a seethe, I interrupted to point out that there was no English team at the Olympics but one from Great Britain and the fact was the curlers were Scottish … blank stare duly received.
I shall let readers draw their own conclusions.
However, and going off at a tangent slightly, by my mind the current national anthem, God Save The Queen, should either be exclusively reserved for United Kingdom events or English but not both.
Ian Craig, Strathaven.
A PRICKLY SITUATION
I HAVE no wish to make light of the myriad pressures facing likeable wee hedgehogs ("Freefall in numbers of rural hedgehogs", The Herald, February 22 ) and I acknowledge their worthy place in the great scheme of things.
I simply pass on the lighthearted observation of a veterinary student that in addition to various vicissitudes they must find it a business doing pleasure.
R Russell Smith, Largs.
Read more: It is ridiculous to use Chernobyl to damn nuclear power
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