To put it bluntly, many of the workers in the nuclear industry are fed
up with the attitude of some sections of the media, of Labour鈥檚 energy spokesman,
Frank Dobson, and of Conservative ministers. At a time when even the Netherlands
is being forced, after an interregnum, to plan future nuclear power stations,
why is Britain prepared to let our expert teams disperse when the Sizewell
B contract is finished?
The simple consequence will be that in 10 or 15 years鈥� time Britain
will inevitably be running to the French or the Japanese for help in a field
in which it once led the world. Besides, papers and politicians might just
remember how many people are employed by British Nuclear Fuels alone: last
year, 7539 at Sellafield, 2974 at Springfields, 1439 at Capenhurst, 2633
at Risley, 633 at Chapelcross and 244 seafarers.
I do, however, detect a change in the public mood about the nuclear
industry. If coal produces acid rain, and dams create their own havoc in
the Amazonian rainforest, and Third World countries want electricity, is
not nuclear energy the greenest of them all?
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* * *
When I rebuked John Major for using the phrase 鈥榥uclear dumping鈥� during
Prime Minister鈥檚 Questions, I did not realise that I would get such a handsome
reply:
鈥業 doubt I could have put it better myself: as you said, 鈥�. . . there
is no such thing as nuclear dumping. There is careful storage in controlled,
safe conditions.鈥� In mitigation, I was responding in the same terms as being
used in the Question put to me by Andrew Welsh. Correcting colleagues in
the Chamber each and every time some of them use words loosely, rather than
simply following on the tenor of their Question, would take a lot of time
from the fifteen minutes allocated to Prime Minister鈥檚 Questions. My aim
in Question Time has been to keep the Answers to a level which allows as
many colleagues as possible to get in and ask their Questions.鈥�
I accept his mitigation. Nonetheless, my point is valid 鈥� sloppy language,
however understandable in the cauldron of Prime Minister鈥檚 Questions, does
allow false alarms about the nuclear industry to circulate.
* * *
Eutrophication is a good word for one of the more sophisticated crossword
puzzles. Lord Nathan, a distinguished Law Lord and chairman of a subcommittee
of the House of Lords Select Committee on the European Communities (considering
a draft directive from Brussels) put it like this:
鈥楾he simplest scientific definition of eutrophication is 鈥楾he response
in water to enrichment by nutrients.鈥�
I won鈥檛 argue with that definition, although I know that it鈥檚 not the
whole story. But what is clear is that the nutrients, especially nitrogen
and phosphorus and their compounds, cause accelerated growth of algae and
higher forms of plant life to produce an undesirable disturbance to the
balance of organisms and to the quality of the water concerned.
What does interest me is the difference of opinion between ministers
in the Commons and the experts who have given evidence to the Lords. The
Nature Conservancy Council has stated that eutrophication is perhaps the
most insidious and pervasive influence on wetland life, and is getting worse.
In contrast, environment ministers have told the Commons that eutrophication
is not increasing in Britain, and it is 鈥榣imited to a small number of areas,
for example, the Norfolk Broads, Lough Leven and Lake Windermere鈥�.
My eyes tell me that the Nature Conservancy Council is right. Anyhow,
yet again the Lords have performed a considerable service, and their report*
deserves to be studied by any reader concerned with pollution and the treatment
of municipal waste water.
* * *
I have been taken gently to task for suggesting that C. T. R. Wilson
was the most important Scots scientist ever 鈥� or, more accurately, for quoting
the late Norman Feather, FRS, to that effect. How about James Clerk Maxwell?
Of Maxwell, Einstein was to say: 鈥楾he special theory of relativity owes
its origins to Maxwell鈥檚 equations of the electromagnetic field. Since Maxwell鈥檚
time, physical reality has been thought of as represented by continuous
fields, and not capable of any mechanical interpretation. This change in
the conception of reality is the most fruitful that physics has experienced
since Newton.鈥� Of Maxwell, Max Planck observed: 鈥楬e achieved greatness unequalled.鈥�
The discovery of electromagnetic radiation led to the development of
radio and infrared telescopes, currently exploiting the farthest reaches
of space. Maxwell鈥檚 brilliant theoretical study of Saturn鈥檚 rings provided
a physical explanation recently confirmed by the American space probes.
So I am delighted to be asked by David Ritchie and the trustees of the
James Clerk Maxwell Foundation to visit Number 14 India Street, Edinburgh,
Maxwell鈥檚 old home. It is also, fortuitously, the home of Mr and Mrs MacIvor,
who have inspired the memorial to Maxwell in Edinburgh鈥檚 New Town.
Ian MacIvor is himself the distinguished, recently retired and widely
liked Chief Inspector of Ancient Monuments in Scotland. In my capacity as
a spouse, I have been on several of the Ancient Monuments Board鈥檚 annual
three-day visitations, and I feel that 14 India Street will be a fitting
memorial for MacIvor鈥檚 scholarship as well as for Maxwell鈥檚 genius.
*Municipal Waste Water Treatment, Select Committee on the European Communities,
HMSO, 拢26.