Nuclear power is a fiscal sink hole

And English Labour is stupidly forcing it onto Scotland

Published in The National, October 6th, and The Edinburgh Evening News, October 7th.

Thanks to Professor John Robertson’s excellent blog highlighting the ongoing financial troubles facing the Sizewell C nuclear power plant project in Suffolk and the out-of-control costs of the Hinkley Point C plant under construction in Somerset.

As he points out, the £46 billion (and counting) bill for the disastrous Hinkley Point C plant exceeds the entire £41 billion devolved budget for Scotland. The FT reports that Sizewell C is delayed again and the UK government is ponying up £5.5 billion in subsidies (but Reeves can’t afford £2 billion of the Winter Fuel Allowance) because the private sector won’t touch it with a barge pole.

All eight of the UK’s nuclear plants are owned and operated by France’s state energy company, EDF, which has troubles galore of its own. Back in June, nuclear prices turned negative and France took six plants offline, replacing the lost power with far cheaper renewables.  

Scotland has two EDF-run nuclear plants - Hunterston B in West Kilbride, Ayrshire which ceased generating in January 2022;

and Torness near Dunbar, East Lothian, which will stop generating power in 2028, two years earlier than expected, due to a rising number of cracks in its core - 46 so far. Spreading cracks can lead to a reactor meltdown and the release of radiation into the environment. Torness was to cease operation in 2023, but EDF in its wisdom decided to extend this to 2030.

Yet Anas Sarwar, the incredibly inept English Labour northern branch supervisor, bizzarely insists that Scotland must invest in nuclear power to cut bills. You can’t make this stuff up.

If he becomes First Minister, he’ll no doubt approve the proposed nuclear fusion plant at Ardeer in North Ayrshire that the current SNP Scottish administration has rejected.

Here’s a measure of the man’s stupidity:

“Scotland now risks paying the price in lost jobs and opportunities for the SNP’s unscientific and economically backward opposition to nuclear energy.” 

And of course his boss, Sir Keir and Viceroy Murray agree, with the Viceroy threatening to overrule the Scottish administration.

The reason the private sector is running a mile from nuclear power is because of its out-of-control construction costs, the propensity for plants to develop cracks and the intractable problem of what to do with tonnes of radioactive waste.

For the umpteenth time, Scotland doesn’t need nuclear (power or weapons). It generates the bulk of renewable energy within the failing UK, renewables that are being siphoned off by our greedy southern neighbour with the profits lining the bulging pockets of private corporations while Scots not only freeze but pay a premium for having their own energy sold back to them.  

Come on, Scotland. Let’s get out of here.