Green Power Could Replace Nuclear, Says McConnell First Minister

Sep 22 - Herald, The; Glasgow (UK)

Scotland could meet its future energy needs without having to build new nuclear power stations, Jack McConnell said yesterday.

In his boldest statement on the subject to date, the First Minister said he felt a "massive" increase in renewable energy could replace nuclear entirely.

However, given the importance of a secure electricity supply to homes and business, he said it would be foolish to rule out the nuclear option permanently.

Mr McConnell's remarks came as the SNP again put him under pressure to give a definitive view on whether he wanted to see new nuclear power plants in Scotland.

At First Minister's questions, Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP leader at Holyrood, asked if he agreed with his Liberal Democrat deputy Nicol Stephen, who earlier this week said "categorically" that Scotland did not need any new nuclear stations.

As he has said often before, Mr McConnell said ministers would not even consider an application for a new station until the problem of where to store radioactive waste had been resolved.

He then surprised MSPs by adding: "I suspect we have the capacity in Scotland to deliver the energy needs that we have from a massive increase in renewable sources. At the same time. . . it would be silly of us at this stage to forever rule out any option."

Ms Sturgeon accused Mr McConnell of sitting on the fence, and urged him "for once in his life to give a straight answer to a straight question". Mr McConnell said: "The reality is, I don't suspect that new stations will be required in Scotland."

The First Minister then went on the attack, asking Ms Sturgeon what would happen if it was decided to store all the UK's nuclear waste in England and Scotland became independent.

Would that mean Scotland's share of the waste would need to be returned home, he asked.

Ms Sturgeon snapped: "No, of course it wouldn't. That's ridiculous. What I'm saying is that when you don't have a solution for nuclear waste, it's totally irresponsible to suggest we create even more waste."

Annabel Goldie, the Scottish Tory leader, later claimed that the executive had GBP76m unallocated in its health department budget which ought to be used for free personal care for the elderly.

Inadequate funding was leading to councils operating waiting lists for care despite an expectation that it should be delivered when needed, she said.

Mr McConnell said the cash figure sounded like "complete rubbish" and said the executive was now making up for years of under- investment by the Tories.

The executive later said that GBP76.8m identified in the recent draft budget as unallocated had now been allocated to NHS boards, and was therefore unavailable for spending on free personal care.