Nuclear power is not the only option | Letters

Why is the government fixated on Sizewell C when geothermal and tidal energy are safe, simple and cost-effective?I do not share your enthusiasm for the "good news" that Sizewell C is believed to be safe from Jeremy Hunt's budgetary cuts ("Britain can't afford to waver over nuclear power - soon it will be too late", Editorial). "On a freezing cold, windless, winter's evening", Britain's grid will indeed need an alternative power source to wind or solar, but why is it assumed that only nuclear can provide an alternative base load? And at the cost of how many billions? And how many decades of lead time?Geothermal could do the job faster, more safely and cheaply - for about a quarter of the cost. Geothermal power plants operate already in the United States, Italy and Iceland. And nothing is more certain and regular than the tide twice a day; sea turbines already operate in tidal flows off Orkney and Shetland and are another safe source of energy baseload. Let us not be blinkered by nuclear.Wendy FowlerCarnac-Rouffiac, France Continue reading...