JAMES Graham (Letters, July 26), is correct to say that the benefits of nuclear power outweigh those of wind generation. The scale of the Labour Government’s proposals to increase onshore and offshore generation is huge and how this output can be integrated into the grid is of great concern. What needs to be explained by the government is the whole cost of wind, which will include higher transmission costs, back-up costs of gas turbines when there is little or no wind and the increased restraint payments resulting from these higher installed capacities. All these factors will increase the price of electricity and the greater installed capacity needed of gas turbines will increase carbon dioxide emissions. If all the gas turbines have carbon capture and storage installed this will increase the price of electricity even more.
Nuclear plants can now be designed to provide dispatchable power, similar to gas generators, and be designed to reuse spent fuel (not waste as it is often described), thus reducing the need for deep geological storage of the so-called waste from civil and military plants. The answer is to get engineers to design our electricity system, not politicians.
Charles Scott
Edinburgh
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