We learn yet another power company is not prepared to stay in the race to produce the next generation of nuclear power stations for the UK ("Centrica abandons nuclear power plant plan", The Herald, February 5).

We see also Cumbria County Council has refused planning permission for an underground waste repository site. ("Nuclear waste site plans are rejected by council", The Herald, January 31).

We are told Sellafield's clean-up will cost £67.5 billion and that's before we have any real solution to the waste. That is taxpayers' money, £1000 for each of us on top of our fuel bills, and that's just for one power station.

We are also told renewable energy won't work well enough or cheaply enough to meet our needs, particularly as wave and tidal power are not yet sufficiently technically and financially proven, even though they would most likely not encounter the same planning difficulties on visual and other objections as wind turbines.

I would like to wager if the Government in Westminster spent £67.5bn on research and development and company support for wave and tidal power instead of the few millions of pounds so far shoe-horned, kicking and screaming, out of successive administrations, we could have a world-leading technology, ready for exporting around the world, be self-reliant for energy and not have to worry about sending our young folk around the globe to be maimed or worse to protect oil interests in far-flung places.

Gordon S Cox,

24 North Grange Road, Bearsden.