Brian Hunter (Letters, 29 January) is entitled to oppose nuclear power, but he should not misrepresent the costs. The latest comparison estimates (in the House of Lords report The Economics of Renewable Energy) are that nuclear power's base cost is 4.5p/kWh generated. This is slightly higher than coal (4.1p) – a figure that ignores carbon emissions – but much less than onshore wind (7.3p). Construction costs are given as £1,500/kW for nuclear and £1,070/kW for coal (hardly "horrendous"). Provision for decommissioning nuclear plants is included in the running costs.
The reliability of generation plant is measured as its load factor (the proportion of time the plant is generating compared with the time it could be generating). For nuclear, the above document gives 77 per cent, compared with only 27 per cent for onshore wind.
If one measures the danger of generating plant, nuclear is almost the least dangerous (killing fewer people worldwide than any other generation method). Far more people are killed by the chemical industry.
Mr Hunter also alleges that nuclear power leaves a legacy of contaminated land. Not much, and at least radioactivity declines with time; chemical contamination is forever.
