No Nuclear Power Please

An important debate took place in the Parliament today on the future of how we will source Scotland's energy.

During the debate my colleague Joe Fitzpatrick was able to inform the Parliament of the potential for renewable energy in his own city of Dundee. According to Joe, Dundee is the sunniest of all Scotland's cities, making it a likely candidate for harnessing the power of the sun. Mr Fitzpatrick also was able to tell us about the potential for the creation of ethanol from the seaweed in the Firth of Tay on which his home town in nestled.

Mike Russell suggested that this begot the potential slogan "It's Scotland's Seaweed". I actually thought it was more likely that Joe was trying to supplant the traditional "three J's" of Dundee (Jute, Jam and Journalism) with a new "three S" motif, "Sun, Seaweed and the Sunday Post" (the last a nod to the fact that journalism is the one remaining "J" alive and kicking in the city).

Anyway, aside from these nonsensical observations, Joe and many other MSPs were able to point out the huge potential for renewables in Scotland. Unfortunately there were some who were making the case for the continued reliance on nuclear power.

The justification for this varied from the need to maintain a baseload to the need to ensure energy supply beyond the lifetime of more finite sources of energy.

There is no denying that we of course need to maintain a baseload to ensure adequate supply of energy to meet all our domestic requirements. However, the fact of the matter is that nuclear is supplying less of that energy today than it has in the past. Nuclear power stations in Scotland actually generate less energy than the combined amount of renewables generated energy. I do not believe it is beyond the wit of humankind to ensure a suitable mix of renewables sources in the twenty first century to ensure a baseload adequate for our requirements.

Michael McMahon, Labour MSP for Hamilton North and Bellshill for some reason quoted John F Kennedy's "Man on the Moon" speech during the debate. I shall be charitable and avoid snide statements about Labour members being wired to the moon! He was trying to use the speech as some form of justification for nuclear power, as far as I could understand. He failed to make the comparison properly I feel, but it did serve as a useful reminder of the scientific achievements that people have made.

If we can successfully send a man to the moon and return him to the earth, then I do not believe it is beyond us to develop the proper mix of renewables energy in Scotland to meet our requirements.

As for the suggestion that nuclear is needed to breach the gap left by expired finite resources, it fails to pay cognisance to the fact that nuclear power is reliant upon uranium that must be mined from the ground and is itself a finite resource. This is to fail to mention that this uranium is often sourced from some of the most volatile parts of the world.

It is also to fail to mention the fact that still we have not worked out how to safely store nuclear waste. I doubt we ever will. It seems an oxymoron in itself. How can you safely store radioactive waste? This is material that remains hazardous for thousands of years, yet some would have us store it somewhere as yet to be defined. Funnily enough the proponents of nuclear power in today's debate didn't offer a corner of their garden to bury the toxic stuff in. Maybe they're not so keen on it after all?

Anyway, this is all to say that I am proud to be in a party in government that is opposing an expensive and dangerous new generation of nuclear power stations supported by Gordon Brown's Labour government at Westminster. It was pointed out today, that Scotland is a net exporter of energy. That being the case, and it also being the case that we have only begun to scratch the surface of our national renewables potential, I cannot see the logic in building new nuclear power stations in Scotland.

21st Anniversary of Chernobyl Accident

I started this morning's campaigning by swinging by George Square in Glasgow to pay a visit to the vigil for the 21st anniversary of the Chernobyl accident organised by Jim Gillies, a Cumbernauld resident. Jim is a quite phenomenal person.

He has organised a lot of fundraising for the children affected by the Chernobyl accident travelling over to Ukraine quite regularly - often by coach for the whole journey across Europe - to deliver the funds he has raised or vital equipment for local hospitals. His truly remarkable efforts are rightly to be praised.

Also, his efforts to ensure we don't forget about the Chernobyl accident is itself a great effort. We must not forget this event, which serves as a stark reminder of the dangers of nuclear power.

The White Elephant in the Room

Today I managed to catch up with Friends of the Earth Scotland who had set up their "Nuclear White Elephant" in Edinburgh. They were out campaigning against the creation of a new generation of nuclear power stations, and I have to say I totally agree with them. And not only do I agree with them, but so do the people of Cumbernauld and Kilsyth according to our survey returns.

As I have mentioned before on the blog we have been busily delivering surveys across the constituency and one of the questions we have asked is whether or not people believe that new nuclear power stations should be constructed. And they have delivered a resounding no to such a suggestion. 66.3% of those who responded were against with a mere 14.2% for (the remaining 19.5% said that they don't know).

I'm with them on this one. Nuclear power is hugely expensive and leaves us with radioactive waste that will pollute for hundreds of years to come. It is also unnecessary given that in Scotland we produce more power than we consume.

Far from building new nuclear power stations we should be investing in Scotland's renewable energy potential. The power of wind, wave and the Sun (no jokes about the power from the latter being negligible in Scotland please!) should be harnessed.

We have the potential to be world leaders in green sources of energy. For the benefit of our environment we should take it as well as the benefits to our economy this can bring.