THE nuclear lobby is daily bombarding MPs and all forms of the media with the message that nuclear power is an essential element in preventing the build-up of greenhouse gases.

We are told there is no alternative but to build a string of nuclear plants, although there is not enough usable uranium in the world to provide for its total energy needs beyond eight years.

There is no usable uranium in Britain, but we are assured that Africa is a stable and reliable source.

None of the nuclear plants built or planned can withstand a catastrophic attack by planes being crashed into them or by having bunker-busting bombs dropped on them.

Indeed, all of the terrorist organisations and potential enemies of this country could mount such an attack with more ease than the 9/11 attacks.

The country is divided over the issue, but I have a neat solution. Each community that votes for nuclear power would be provided with its own small to medium-sized plant modelled on those installed in large aircraft carriers. These would be combined heat and power plants unlike their huge, less efficient, alternatives.

We could have one for York built on a corner of Knavesmire. The proponents of nuclear power assure us that they are perfectly safe. Thus, it is only fair that York, seeking its benefits, should live with the risks, however slight, rather than act in a cowardly way by pushing them on to a community more than 100 miles distant.

Should an attack or an accident occur, only York would be obliterated and Yorkshire be contaminated for the foreseeable future, unlike the prospect of the whole country being wiped out or contaminated by an attack on a large distant plant.

J M Purves,

Crossways,

Badger Hill,

York.

Updated: 09:38 Thursday, March 16, 2006