Part 2 of 3 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
(Continuing comments of U.K. members of Parliament in the House of Lords as they debate the Nuclear Energy Financing Bill.)    
     Lord Rooker is a member of the opposition Labour Party of the U.K. Parliament. He said that he supported the financing bill. He added that “I do not think you can be taken seriously as a political party in 2022 if you are not in favour of civil nuclear power: it is as simple as that.”
     Lord Teverson is a member of the Liberal Democrats which is the fourth largest party in the House of Common. He opposed the bill, saying that he was skeptical about the need for new nuclear development, citing nuclear waste and costs. He also said that if he was in favor of nuclear power he would advise the U.K. government to “go down the Korean route: you build a fleet of 20, you get your economies of scale and you finance it through the public purse which has minimum interest cost … probably the only way you can make nuclear power successful in the modern world.”
     Baroness Neville-Jones is a Conservative member of Parliament who was a former Conservative minister of security. She said, “We need to get it on the statute book as soon as we can, with early commencement, so that the detailed work on financial flows via the RAB model can go ahead, with some prospect of Sizewell and other possible nuclear sites coming on stream in a reasonable timescale. The truth is that this country is not going to achieve its statutorily embedded climate change goals of net-zero by 2050, nor the decarbonization of electricity production by 2035, without a contribution from nuclear energy generation, which, as has also been said, is at the moment declining. I know there is a big divide on this issue, but it is not just the government who say we need it; so does the Climate Change Committee. We need the contribution of nuclear-generated power. Frankly, Parliament cannot deny the means to the end that it has ordained.”
     Lord Ravensdale is an independent member of the House of Lords. He is an engineer and project director of the nuclear industry. He said that the bill should include provisions to make hydrogen produced from a nuclear energy eligible for the renewable transport fuel obligation along with wind and solar. He added that “A simple change, adding nuclear-derived hydrogen to the list of zero-emissions sources defined by the Energy Act 2004, could unlock millions of pounds of private investment into hydrogen production in the UK and accelerate the Government’s hydrogen production targets, while also supporting the nuclear.”
     Baroness Bennett is a member of the Green Party. She restated her party’s long-term opposition to new nuclear power. She added that nuclear power was “crowding out other opportunities and ways of dealing with our climate emergency and poverty crisis.” She gave examples such as renewables and energy efficiency.
Please read Part 3 next.