12. Short Debate: Atomic dreams: Nuclear power and blind faith in an ageing technology

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:46 pm on 7 December 2022.

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Photo of Mike Hedges Mike Hedges Labour 6:46, 7 December 2022

Can I also thank Mabon for giving me a minute of this debate and for what he said previously? We have, since Calder Hall in 1956, gone through a large number of nuclear-reactor types—Magnox, pressurised water reactor, advanced gas-cooled reactors, and now the generation 3 plus nuclear reactor proposed at Sizewell C. When technologies develop, costs should reduce. They should reduce rapidly. That has not been the case with nuclear. What has characterised nuclear power is problems—cost overruns in construction, maintenance and malfunction issues more costly than expected, cost of dealing with nuclear waste material, finding storage for the nuclear waste material. This is reminiscent of the other 1960s and 1970s future technology—which those people old enough will remember—the hovercraft. Since then, the amount of fuel they take and the maintenance costs have meant it is no longer feasible to use them. And now, like the hovercraft, it is time to say 'no' to nuclear power and 'yes' to renewables.