Meeting of the Parliament 24 June 2026 [Draft]
In the years since I first contributed to a debate in this Parliament on new nuclear power in Scotland, four of the six parties in the chamber have come to support the proposition that I put forward, in some form or other. In that, they are on the side of the majority of the public, which supports nuclear power. Indeed, in Scotland, around 54 per cent of people support nuclear energy and only 29 per cent are opposed. Even among Scottish National Party voters, the majority now supports new nuclear in Scotland’s energy mix.
However, the SNP Government remains opposed, even though new nuclear is the critical piece of the jigsaw puzzle that would let the SNP achieve exactly what it wants. For years, the Scottish Government has sought to present itself—and, by extension, Scotland—as a leader in the fight against climate change. In 2019, it even legislated for a 75 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030, although it scrapped that target five years later because it could not meet it. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that Scotland’s climate ambitions would be much closer to realisation today had ministers been willing to embrace every available low-carbon technology. However, they were not.
We have some of the best renewable energy sources in Europe, but we must be honest about the limitations of any energy source. Wind power depends on the weather. There are regular days when wind generates more electricity than we can use, which, along with the challenges of crossing the grid bottleneck, leads to hundreds of millions of pounds in constraint payments. There are also days when wind generation drops. In fact, over the year, wind turbines operate only around 25 to 40 per cent of the time.
The point is that we must be able to guarantee electricity when homes, businesses and hospitals need it. That means baseload: electricity that is there and can be called on anywhere, any time—on days such as today, for example, when the grid put out a capacity warning due to low wind and high heat. Yesterday, prices for gas back-up were nearly £1,000 per megawatt hour. Without Torness, they would have been between £1,500 and £2,000 per megawatt hour. That is why we need nuclear.
That is just the state of play at the moment. Most credible pathways project electricity demand in Scotland doubling or even tripling by 2050. No wonder: electric vehicles, heat pumps, hydrogen production, advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence and high-tech industries all require enormous amounts of reliable power. That means nuclear.
However, we do not just need reliable power. We need local power. The events of recent years, particularly the war in Ukraine, have reminded us that energy policy is also national security policy. Countries that rely too heavily on imported stocks leave themselves exposed to international shocks and geopolitical instability. The United Kingdom currently requires around 900 tonnes of uranium a year, and the UK—I stress the UK—has about 110,000 tonnes stockpiled.
The environmental argument stacks up. A nuclear station can generate vast quantities of low-carbon electricity on a comparatively small site. Producing the same amount of electricity through ground-mounted solar—a technology that I stress I support and that must form part of our energy mix—requires many times more land.
Most of us would agree that reducing emissions matters. The climate does not care whether a unit of low-carbon electricity comes from a wind turbine or a nuclear reactor. On that measure, nuclear power performs exceptionally well. Life-cycle emissions are comparable to offshore wind.
Then there are the economic benefits. Nuclear supports around 18,500 jobs in Scotland. It directly employs more than 5,400 people, and around 30 per cent of those are in Scotland’s most deprived local authority areas. Nuclear contributed around £1.5 billion in gross value added to the Scottish economy in 2024.
The case for new nuclear in Scotland is absolutely compelling. Scotland cannot decarbonise its economy, strengthen its energy security, grow its industrial base and provide baseload while simultaneously ruling out one of the world’s most reliable sources of low-carbon electricity.