Tidal power and not nuclear energy should be our focus - Yorkshire Post Letters

I recently had a conversation with an employee of a commercial energy company and if any evidence was needed of the blindness and brainwashing on the subject of energy supply, this was it.

The motives of our present energy policy have more to do with capitalism and the military than improving quality of life and our environment.

This person, sincere and genuine, had no vision other than nuclear power to make good the intermittent deficiencies of wind and solar.

We did discuss pumped storage schemes as a means of supply when wind and solar was not available. I pointed out that pumped storage generation had been in existence since 1907 in Switzerland but has only recently been mentioned by such informed, august bodies as the BBC. If nothing, this is sinister and should be regarded with suspicion.

I went on to explain, or rather ask, why wave and tidal power was a media excluded technology. To which he seemed genuinely puzzled.

I pointed out how this, with our high coastline to land area ratio, and the existing offshore wind turbine and distribution infrastructure that could be used. Underwater turbines could be coupled to each wind structure, and the constant, predictable tides, thanks to the moon, used to drive the underwater turbines.

It has the potential of supplying at least 20 per cent of our needs and is cheaper and cleaner than nuclear power which supplies only 16 per cent.

Its opponents use duplicitous, hypocritical environmental arguments. Nuclear safe. Tidal not. Really? Wildlife at risk. Isn’t humanity wildlife? When we pull fish from the sea, we hear few cries of environmental damage.

Economics dear boy, economics is the cry.

And of course tidal barrage schemes where appropriate would expand generation enormously.

South Korea has the largest tidal generator at present delivering 254MW. The UK’s total nuclear output is 6 GW. That’s equivalent to 24 tidal generators.

Even Universities have been strangely silent or muzzled by their financial sponsors. Like many other things in our dystopian society, the explanation could be either incompetence or deliberate, depending on your attitude to conspiracy theories. It is so obvious that the latter is unfortunately the most probable explanation.

Recent YP correspondence has concentrated on improving battery technology but this is, at best, a partial solution and in itself requires mining, manufacture, disposal and depleting limited resources and will never be an answer.

Nuclear fission energy with all its potential dangers and vulnerability both from inherent technological failure, external terrorism and war must never, ever be part of our system. It’s incredible that it’s even considered with all the accidents and threats that have occurred around the world.

Investment into nuclear, if at all, must be directed into safe nuclear fusion. Not fission. Fusion is the elusive holy grail and until that is solved, tidal and wave energy is where our efforts should lie.