SO the government is going ahead with nuclear power whether we want it or not.They claim that we don't really have any choice. They may be right, but it didn't have to be this way.

SO the government is going ahead with nuclear power whether we want it or not.

They claim that we don't really have any choice. They may be right, but it didn't have to be this way.

Nuclear power may be carbon free, but its waste will be a liability for thousands of years to come.

Can you inflict such a responsibility on future generations with a clear conscience? The obsession with wind power, by both the government and the green lobby, have made more nuclear power stations almost inevitable.

The British Isles have an abundance of wave and tidal power which we have chosen not to use to any great extent.

Essex-based Trident Energy, who have plans to site a wave energy converter off Southwold, estimate that wave power could supply 25pc of the UK's needs.

Tidal power has even greater potential,possibly capable of supplying 50pc. Unlike wind power the tides are always available, reliable and predictable. In August 2007 work began on the 1.2mw SeaGen tidal energy system in Strangford Lough, Northern Ireland. This is only a prototype with permission to operate for five years but it is also the world's largest of this type by a significant margin.

The prime site is the Bristol Channel with an average 14m tidal rise and fall twice a day. This could provide in the region of 3,500mw, equivalent to three modern nuclear power stations, approximately 6pc of current national needs. All the necessary surveys and costings were done more than 25 years ago, but we are no further forward.

Wind power can never make any more than a small, token and unreliable contribution to our energy needs.

Take a look at Lowestoft's turbine Gulliver and you will see what I mean. Constantly directing our attention to wind power may be no more than a distraction, to create the situation where more nuclear power stations become a necessary evil. How else could the government dupe us into accepting something so generally unpopular?

BILL MOUNTFORD

Waveney UKIP