Madam, — Frank McDonald (June 4th) takes the position, based apparently on a book that he has read, that nuclear power is uneconomical. That being the case, no investor in their right mind will invest in it. There is no need, therefore, for the legal prohibition on nuclear power that currently stands in the statute books (a prohibition, by the way, that it is directly in breach of the the Euratom treaty).
If anyone wants to invest in nuclear power, let them. If they go bankrupt, then they go bankrupt. Once the plant is built it will be there for 50 years and more, producing extremely valuable electricity with very low running costs.
As for decommissioning, modern plants are built with it in mind. As for nuclear by-products (“waste”), much will be re-used, and the remainder will be processed by the supplier of the fuel (perhaps French or American). But here is a prediction: in the context of peak oil and climate change, a nuclear power station will actually be a licence to print money. – Yours, etc,
JOHN STAFFORD,
Dargle Wood,
Knocklyon,
Dublin 16.