IAN Cummings (ViewPoints July 4), above, is a little optimistic in regarding nuclear power as a panacea for our energy requirements.
Certainly the problem of nuclear waste is of less immediate urgency than the threat of climate change but it hasn’t gone away. We cannot continue forever building up mountains of waste for which nobody has yet managed to devise a satisfactory means of disposal.
The immediate concern may be to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and the consequent impact on climate change. However, unless the nuclear industry manages to find a safe and reliable method of disposing of its waste permanently it cannot be anything more than a stopgap solution to our energy needs.
Windmills are not the only source of renewable energy. Tidal power is only in its infancy but unlike other renewable sources, the tides are wholly predictable. Furthermore, they peak at different times at different points along the coastline.
In principle therefore a series of tidal generators located at various points around the coast has the potential to provide a reliable 24/7 energy source comparable to that provided by nuclear power.
None of this is likely to happen in the next few years, so that nuclear power is likely to be with us for some time yet but in the long term (say 10 or 20 years) it would make sense to replace nuclear power with tidal power generation.
CHRIS ROBINS, Foxdown Close, Kidlington
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