Energy Bill

I would very much like my fears to be allayed, but I think that the risk is there. The evidence of what has happened in the last seven years in terms of the growth of international terrorism is something that we cannot simply ignore. When it comes to costs, the White Paper on nuclear power is, again, extremely illuminating. The Government and the nuclear lobby are now saying that nuclear indisputably provides the cheapest form of low-carbon electricity generation, but the White Paper does not say that. It says that in certain scenarios it is likely that nuclear could be competitive. That is an important distinction, and we should be careful what we say about the costs. At the end of the day, there is no solution to the question of waste storage. Theoretically a repository may have been designed, but no country in the world has built a repository, no country in the world is anywhere near building a repository, and no country in the world has the slightest idea what the ultimate costs of a repository would be. If the Government are to be absolutely committed and sincere in saying that any new nuclear build will have to internalise the full costs, that cannot happen until we know what the full costs of long-term waste management will be. Let me say finally that I think the dilemma is that we are pretending that we have—