UK Parliament / Open data

Nuclear Energy (Financing) Bill

The noble Lord is quite right. What I am raising is: why have we got to this position? It is partly because parties such as the Greens are so anti this, and one of the things they threw around casually was how dangerous this is. I do agree that, in terms of waste and its disposal, we are currently able to do it quite safely on a temporary basis—but there is a need to resolve the long-term issue. The noble Baroness, Lady Neville-Jones, is absolutely right, and I hope the Minister will say that this will be pushed forward. From what I have seen, it seems that we are moving down that route very quickly.

Basically, we need to pull our finger out and get going on this. Sizewell C and Hinkley Point C are absolutely necessary. Looking to the future, we absolutely have to go for SMRs, AMRs and the use of hydrogen. This can all be encapsulated somehow in this. I think we would all agree with that.

I ask the Minister: will the problems at the Taishan plant, mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Howell, have an impact on Hinkley Point C or have those problems been resolved?

Finally, when I had responsibility for more than 20 nuclear reactors two decades ago, only the Navy was training people and awarding nuclear degrees, which universities in this country had stopped doing. I know that they have restarted, but a number of noble Lords have made the point that this is an opportunity for us to get apprentices and to start training people. I am not sure about a CEGB—but I must say that we need something like it. This sort of training is needed because, at the moment, they are nicking all the people we trained in the Navy to go and do these jobs, and that is not a good way to go ahead.

4.44 pm

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
819 c37 
Session
2021-22
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamber
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