Whilst I am delighted to see that Sammy Wilson MLA finally appears to be admitting that climate change is a danger, I find his rather naïve attitude to Nuclear Power rather concerning.

I would recommend that he reads a publication by the Green Party – “Previous Generation: Ten reasons why nuclear power makes no sense for Ireland” which is available on our website (http://www.greenparty.ie/en/content/download/7220/68497/file/nuclear_4_sml.pdf)

to see evidence, which as a fellow Economist, he may appreciate to temper much of what he says.

For example

• An efficient nuclear power plant is at least 1,000 MW in size - we would need a similar sized gas-fired plant running on standby in case the nuclear plant had to be shut down. This is still a cost to the Northern Ireland economy even if we export the excess electricity produced via the North-South or cross-Irish sea interconnectors.
• Reputable scientists estimate that a doubling in global nuclear power by 2050 would only lead to a 5 per cent reduction in global CO₂ emissions.
• A major study by a team of Professors at Massachusetts Institute of Technology came to the conclusion that no one has yet resolved the challenge of what to do with the long-term storage of nuclear waste.
• Uranium is also a depleting resource – Professor Bertrand Bareé, scientific advisor to the French nuclear power company Areva, stated at a recent UCD energy conference that we would start running out of suitable uranium by the middle of this century.

And then there is, of course, the safety issue which may be of concern to those of us who live in East Antrim where he says that “he would not be opposed to the construction of an atomic energy plant” (Carrick Times, 31/01/08).

Dr Mark Bailey

Green Party Economy spokesperson & East Antrim organiser

Written in response to an article entitled DUP backs move to nuclear power published in the Carrick Times on 31^st January 2008 (this letter was published in the Carrick Times on 7^th February 2008 ).