In response to Herbie Renfield's letter 'Answers on N-power', itself a response to my letter, his previous and of Mr Larkham's, I have two questions.

Mr Renfield claims that it costs less than £200 million/year to store current nuclear waste (a guesstimate based on published figures known to be incomplete). He also says the decommissioning process of a nuclear power plant will take 95 years once it closes. Will we be paying £200 million/year for a hundred years? If so I can see why Gordon Brown's eyes were said to water at nuclear power costs.

My second question would be that if the restoration of a nuclear site takes 95 years, how are they to be finally made safe? No scientist claims there will be petrol, gas or uranium around then. Either someone will invent a new energy source, or the final acts of nuclear power clean up will have to be done using renewable energy. May as well get used to renewable energy now and clean up as much of the current nuclear mess as we can while we still have some fossil fuel left to use. Our great grandchildren may not be able to clean up or contain our radioactive legacy.

Funny, I read RWE pulled out of building new nuclear power stations at Oldbury and Anglesey not because of politics as Mr Renfield claimed, but for economic reasons, so they can invest their money in renewable energy – solar panels and wind turbines, and get more money back faster.

– Tom Cousins, Boxbush Road, Coleford.