The Government's decision to support the construction of a new generation of nuclear power stations is a huge and expensive mistake. The Government considers that nuclear power is a clean, cheap, reliable form of energy which will reduce our dependency on imported energy whilst tackling climate change. It also believes we have no alternative.

Unfortunately, these assumptions are wrong and the plans have been strongly condemned by the Government's advisors, the Commission for Sustainable Development.

The mining and enrichment of uranium is highly polluting, but this fact is ignored by politicians. Current estimates are that global supplies of high grade uranium are enough to last just 42 years at current rates of use (far less if additional power stations are built).

All the uranium supplies have to be imported and these supplies may not be reliable in future. The costs of construction and decommissioning of power stations regularly substantially exceeds estimates, and we expect our descendants to foot the bill for looking after our waste for thousands of years.

Building new nuclear power stations won't cut our greenhouse gas emissions for years. We can't waste any more time in taking steps to prevent dangerous climate change.

A big push on cutting our energy use and becoming more energy efficient could achieve rapid results. Also, it is possible for us to cut our greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent using a diversity of energy sources other than nuclear power. If we really want a cleaner, greener future we shouldn't expect nuclear power to be part of the solution.

Mark Dawson, Sycamore Terrace, York.