Ian Bell's article today underlines the disastrous energy policy conducted by the UK Government ("Tory energy policy generates worst of all possible worlds", The Herald, September 23). It has made contracts to import electricity from Europe to fill the gap left by the French developer announcing Hinkley Point C will be indefinitely delayed beyond its projected startup date of 2023.
There appears to have been a lack of basic scientific and engineering advice taken by George Osborne that is impelling him to support this French European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) design when it has failed to work for all six reactors built so far in Finland, France and China.
As a consequence, Areva, the €2 billion French EPR design company having declared losses from amongst other matters, numerous lawsuits of €4.8bn euros last year, appears technically bankrupt.
Neither Areva nor Electricity de France, the developers at Hinkley Point, as independent companies, are owned by the French government, although they rely on French government support.
However, in July the French Parliament voted to reduce its dependence on nuclear energy from more than 70 percent of its power generation to 50 percent amidst complaints about the huge losses Arreva and its latest EPR project at Flamanville were incurring.
There is a likely limit to how long the French government might want to support this non working technology apart from the fact there are EU state aid rule limitations. This also calls into question the lack of commercial contractual procedures apparently operated by the UK Government.
How can contracts be made with apparently bankrupt entities that apparently breach state aid rules? Who is responsible for technical/scientific risk assessment, when this design is unproven as all previous six EPR reactors have failed to deliver power? Why are they making contracts for a dated technology that will produce an expensive radioactive waste legacy when new thorium fuelled reactor designs could burn their own waste?
Above all, why is the UK Government contracting foreign companies with dubious technology and agreeing huge electricity prices when our own UK designed and manufactured gas fired combined cycle power stations using UK gas can be built for around one twentieth of the cost in a fraction of the time it takes to build a nuclear plant?
We urgently need a moratorium called on the proposed nuclear projects at not only Hinkley Point but also Bradwell and Sizewell before a public enquiry can establish in open forum the optimal energy mix from all other sources including renewables to ensure that the UK, as possibly one of the richest countries in energy resources in Europe, does not end up in abject fuel poverty.
Elizabeth Marshall
3/13 Western Harbour Midway
Edinburgh
The brilliant piece by Ian Bell touched on the tip of the Westminster Government's hypocrisy and worse. Claiming that support for renewables was too expensive, while throwing billions of pounds and an open-ended commitment to the nuclear industry, is just one aspect.
With equal hypocrisy, the Tories have attempted to ridicule Jeremy Corbyn's suggestion regarding re-nationalisation of the railways. In fact, much of the rail franchise is also state-owned, but by the Netherlands government in the form of Abellio and by the German government's Deutsche Bahn.
Similarly, much of the supposedly privatised energy generation industry is also state owned, but by the French state.
The Chancellor is not just hypocritical, but also economically and environmentally illiterate. If overseas governments can make a profit from our formerly state-owned industries, why cannot the UK? Destroying the UK's current expertise in renewables will simply hand another growth industry to overseas investors.
Dr R.M. Morris,
Veslehaug,
Polesburn,
Methlick,
Ellon.
Ian Bell writes of “onshore wind energy production, in which Scotland is a world leader ... ” This statement is a little wide of the mark. At the end of 2014 Scotland had some 5.2 GW of installed onshore wind power generation capacity. This figure was dwarfed by the capacity in China (115 GW), India (23 GW), USA (66 GW), Germany (39 GW) and Spain (23 GW). Looking at offshore generating capacity, England had 4.1GW compared with Scotland’s 0.2GW.
With no significant indigenous wind turbine manufacturing capability, the boast that Scotland is a world leader in either onshore or offshore wind power generation is a triumph of hope over reality.
Norman Bolton,
3 Paidmyre Crescent,
Newton Mearns, Glasgow.
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