of Hinton Waldrist
(Con):...I hope that this Government will continue to support the
work of the nuclear skills taskforce, as well as the many
outstanding apprenticeship schemes throughout the industry,
notably those with the UKAEA, Rolls-Royce
and EDF at Hinkley Point. Some of those at Hinkley Point
relocated from Anglesey when the Horizon project failed. I
sincerely hope that this Government will continue their plans to
redevelop Wylfa. If not at gigawatt scale then please release it
quickly as a site for SMRs, as either would enable this young
skilled workforce to return home. Incidentally, while it is not
one of the industrial heartlands of the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, it
is one that is very close to my heart and desperately needs
good-quality, well-paid employment—as does Cumbria, another area
which cannot be described as an industrial heartland, an
observation that will not be missed by his noble friend Lady
Hayman of Ullock.
It was also welcome to see the announcement of a sustainable
aviation fuel revenue support mechanism Bill, to support the
transition to sustainable flying. Of the multiple SAF production
routes, those using nuclear energy inputs offer the greatest
emissions reduction, and production on a scale sufficient to meet
future commercial demand. The Bill can enable designers such
as Rolls-Royce SMR,
Westinghouse SMR, newcleo and SAF developers, such as the British
company Equilibrion, to position the UK as a world leader in
commercial nuclear SAF production. Supported by this Bill, these
companies offer the UK access to a huge international market in a
rare economic and social opportunity to deliver UK growth and
thousands of well-paid jobs, while slashing emissions from
aviation...
(CB):...To illustrate
quite how inefficient some of these fuels are in terms of land
use, biodiesel, which comes from rapeseed oil, requires 884
square metres to produce a megawatt hour of energy, whereas
concentrating solar photovoltaic panels demand only 22 square
metres when installed on towers, 19 when installed on the ground
and three when on roofs. Even the much-hyped miscanthus, which at
least has the benefit of regrowing after we chop it down,
produces only 158 megawatt hours for every 158 square metres. It
is important to remember that all these crops are monocrops; they
do not encourage biodiversity. The CEO of Rolls-Royce
told Sky News recently that the creation of liquid hydrocarbon
fuel from biofuels was impossible to scale, due to its
extraordinary land-take and the huge biodiversity challenge...
