Jamie Stone
Main Page: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)Department Debates - View all Jamie Stone's debates with the Scotland Office
Nuclear Energy: Scotland
Jamie Stone Excerpts(4 days, 6 hours ago)
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Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stuart, and I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Dunbartonshire (Susan Murray) on securing this debate. As regards the good-natured jibe from the hon. Member for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh (Chris Murray), I received it in the manner in which it was intended, but I ken his mother quite well, so I will be having a wee word in another place.
My party’s policy is to support small modular reactors, and we make no bones about it. Their roll-out can provide a hugely cost-effective and safe decarbonisation mix. We also believe that planning should involve taking people with us. That takes me straight to what the right hon. Member for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale (David Mundell) mentioned: Dounreay. Dounreay was an example, prior to 1954-55, of the tragedy of highland depopulation. Mr Stuart, if you drive up the A9 from Latheron to Thurso, you see cottages—crofts—without roofs; they are open to the skies. People had gone, and it was the curse. That is why there are so many people from highland families living in all corners of the world. In 1954-55, the planning application to build the reactor at Dounreay went through—can you believe this?—in three days flat; these are changed days indeed. Dounreay was a godsend for the area. It not only halted highland depopulation, but reversed it. People were moving in, and the school rolls were going up. I think it would be fair to say that in not just Caithness but the wider area of Sutherland, many a person would work at Dounreay—and still does today. Some would have a croft; they would work at Dounreay in the day and go back and run the croft in their other time. The advent of Dounreay literally kept the lights on in the straths and glens of the highlands. None of us should ever forget that.
Highland council, the local authority, is just the same as the other councils we have heard about. It is keen to get a new reactor, an SMR, at Dounreay. Great British Energy, as my colleagues have mentioned, specifically mentions Dounreay as absolutely suitable for an SMR. Here is the nub of the matter, and it is really my conclusion. At Dounreay, one of the first nuclear sites ever in the UK, we have a licensed site. That is pretty dashed important. We have a highly skilled workforce and a local population that would warmly welcome an SMR. All the bits of the jigsaw are in place—and yet we have heard repeatedly what the roadblock is.
To show the nicer side of my nature—if there is one—could I just gently point out to the Scottish Government that Plaid Cymru has embraced the concept of new nuclear in Wales? I do hope that Plaid and the SNP will talk to each other, because at the end of the day people cannot just go on punting out old policies that have no practical application whatever in Scotland. I hope they take my advice. I long for the day when the jobs come back to Dounreay through an SMR.
Douglas Lumsden (Aberdeen South) (Con)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stuart, and I welcome the Minister to her place. I thank the hon. Member for Mid Dunbartonshire (Susan Murray) for bringing forward this debate. I also welcome the Scottish Liberal Democrats getting off the fence and finally backing new nuclear.
Douglas Lumsden
The Prime Minister mentioned déjà vu at Prime Minister’s questions, and I must say I am suffering from a bit of the same. I fondly remember many debates in the Scottish Parliament in which I made the case for new nuclear in Scotland, but it was always blocked by the SNP. I have always maintained that we should have an energy mix, and nuclear is vital for our baseload when the sun does not shine and the wind does not blow. Without nuclear, it will be a real struggle for the Scottish Government to get to net zero.
I will refer to some of the contributions today. The hon. Member for Mid Dunbartonshire was right to point out skills and opportunities. This could be a real path for oil and gas workers to make that transition. Another key thing mentioned was grid stability, which I had not thought of. The inertia from the large power stations that we have just now is vital to keeping the grid stable. It would be good to hear from the Minister what plans there are to replace that once Torness closes.
My right hon. Friend the Member for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale (David Mundell) described the renaissance of nuclear and all the benefits, but Scotland is being left behind just now in relation to jobs, skills and local economies. Instead, the SNP wants to carpet-bomb our countryside with monster pylons and battery storage.