Jobs and Investment
Nuclear energy brings secure, well paid jobs and transformative investments to the communities that host it. For example, the project to build the Sizewell C nuclear power station in Suffolk will see £4bn invested in the east of England. There is a golden age of nuclear energy building momentum all over the world, bringing massive investments and thousands of new jobs to the areas where nuclear power is generated.
If Scotland continues to sit out this nuclear energy renaissance, the jobs and investment will go elsewhere.
Scotland has the sites and expertise
Existing nuclear sites are the best places for new reactors because they have skilled Scottish workers, supportive communities who understand the nuclear industry and existing electricity grid connections.
Scotland has four of these sites. They are enormous assets that should be put to use driving Scotland’s economy.
We can’t power Scotland with renewables alone
Scotland has done an excellent job of harnessing renewable energy, particularly wind. But renewable energy is intermittent; the amount of wind fluctuates.
You’ve probably heard it said that Scotland generates more renewable energy than it needs. And while it’s true that the amount generated can add up to more than 100% of Scotland’s electricity usage over a year, that energy doesn’t necessarily match up to when it’s required.
There can be way more renewable energy than Scotland needs on very windy days, and way less on days when the wind drops.
Nuclear energy is not intermittent, it provides constant power which balances the grid and ensures that supply meets demand. This is known as ‘base load’.
Nuclear energy and renewable energy are not in competition, in fact, nuclear is a perfect complement to renewables. Because nuclear energy is also clean, having it in Scotland’s energy mix is a reliable carbon-free back up that overcomes the challenge of fluctuating renewables.
Clean energy
Nuclear energy emits no carbon and runs constantly. Torness nuclear power station is Scotland’s biggest ever producer of clean energy.
The Scottish Government has an ambitious 2045 target for net zero greenhouse gas emissions. Clean nuclear energy can play a key role in meeting it.
Nuclear energy uses very little land
Nuclear power is very energy-dense, meaning it takes up far less space than renewables. For some forms of nuclear reactor, it would take more than a thousand times as much land to get the same amount of energy from renewables.
Building new nuclear energy on existing nuclear sites leaves more of Scotland’s incredible landscape untouched.
Banning nuclear energy is deindustrialisation
Scotland has a painful history of losing major industries.
When Torness shuts down, Scotland will be generating no nuclear energy for the first time since 1959.
But nuclear energy doesn’t have to be part of the same old story. If we act now, it can be part of Scotland’s future - reliable jobs, reliable energy, revitalised communities.