Professor Barry McMullin:

On the nuclear question, I completely agree with Professor Daly that it is not appropriate at this stage, or I do not see fundamental ideological reasons for deciding on that. I would emphasise, however, that there are multiple interacting constraints right now in our energy policy. The planning process, identifying sites, communicating with communities, making these developments and building out great infrastructure - all these things are constraining the speed at which things can happen. If we open up another Pandora's box, which is what in the current setting a discussion about nuclear potentially is, the risk is that we just spend a lot of time having really difficult discussions and arguments about nuclear that just eat away at time and get in the way of the things that we know how to do, that we are already well advanced to do and that we have in the planning system. As I said, though, I do not have an ideological objection. If the newer nuclear technologies were, as they say, shovel ready, if they were proven, if they were available at a cost that made sense, then I could certainly see a role for that. However, in terms of the practical, on-the-ground situation right now, our priorities lie elsewhere.