Majority of Scotts oppose nuclear tech

A majority of Scots oppose building new nuclear power stations north of the border in the UK, a new survey has revealed.

A poll conducted by The Scotsman newspaper asked more 1,000 people their opinion on new nuclear plants. More than a quarter said they totally opposed to the building of nuclear power stations, and only 18 percent said they would agree with plans to set up more nuclear power complexes.

The results indicate that the electorate in Scotland are totally agreed with the Scottish government over the nuclear power issue.

First Minister Alex Salmond has said he will not allow the creation of any new nuclear power stations once the existing sites at Torness and Hunterston are decommissioned in 2023 and 2016, respectively.

However, only 22 percent of respondents to the survey, carried out by George Street Research as part of the quarterly Scottish Nature Omnibus, believe that Scotland’s power needs can be met over the next 20 years without nuclear energy sources.

Economics professor Nick Hanley, of Stirling University, said: “It doesn’t surprise me that there is a discrepancy in opinion between whether renewables meet our power needs and whether we need new nuclear power stations. People are perhaps not fully aware of how important nuclear is to the energy supply.”

“It is not obvious to me that there is a sustainable future outcome for Scotland’s energy mix that doesn’t involve nuclear,” he added.

David Primrose, director of George Street Research, said the survey suggested that people were unclear about how Scotland could meet its energy needs.

The Scottish Government welcomed the survey. “These figures demonstrate the majority of Scots support parliament’s view that we don’t need unnecessary new nuclear power stations, with their soaring decommissioning costs and the unresolved problem of storage of radio active waste that will burden future generations for thousands of years,” said energy minister Jim Mather.