A Place to Stand

Waste Neil Craig (Letters, 22 November) says: "We know that nuclear power costs 2.3 pence a unit." However, does this take into account the £50 billion cost of cleaning up waste from the first generation of British reactors? And does the 2.3p figure also include an allowance for any extra security to protect reactors from bombs dropped by terrorists?

Stephen Salter
Edinburgh


Subsidies Neil Craig's figures for power costs do not include the hidden subsidies provided for nuclear plants that amount to billions of pounds. Taking these costs into account, we find that nuclear power is hideously expensive, unsafe, polluting and is a constant security risk.

John Rogerson
Lockerbie,

Nuclear Stephen Salter (Letters, 24 November) questions my figure of 2.3p per unit for nuclear electricity. It came from the Royal Academy of Engineering, and covers all costs, including disposal. In fact, using modern reactors, with a level regulatory playing field, old reactors left 50 years to "cool" rather than being dismantled immediately (and expensively), and built in four years rather than 12 (the extra being to allow for expensive inquiries), the actual cost could be much further reduced.

Neil Craig Glasgow

// posted by neil craig @ 7:42 pm