LESLEY Riddoch’s article (The National, March 10) is eminently sensible. The UK Government wants to build more large nuclear plants such as Hinkley Point C. The problem for Boris is that investors are not interested. Centrica abandoned its plans to build new nuclear, Toshiba exited the giant 3.3GW plant at Moorside, Cumbria and Hitachi scrapped the £16 billion Wylfa plant on Anglesey. The current Hinkley development costs are a whopping £23bn, almost double that projected in 2008 and set to rise further.

The smart money is now with renewables where the returns are higher, more immediate and less risky. Notwithstanding these setbacks, the Conservative government, backed by Labour, is determined to plough on with Sizewell C. Their problem is who is going to fund it. The Government is not keen to involve the Chinese who already get a return of 15% on their investment at Hinckley Point C.

The Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng’s answer is the Regulated Asset Base (RAB) funding model whereby consumers, that’s us, will pay the construction costs by increasing energy bills. It is a fanciful type of nuclear subsidy where consumers pay for and underwrite the construction costs for 10 years before a single watt of power has been generated.

READ MORE: Lesley Riddoch: Ignore Westminster. Here's why nuclear won't work for Scotland

You have not misread this! The Government is set to increase our energy bills even further at a time when gas/energy prices are soaring, pushing even more people into fuel poverty. Perhaps their spirits will be raised when they learn that RAB, according to Kwarteng, will give private investors greater certainty through a lower and more reliable rate of return. An added bonus is that bill payers can expect their bills to rise even further when the project is completed since we can expect the energy strike price for nuclear to be twice that of renewable – the cheapest form of electricity generation that is now subsidy free-where consumers only start paying once they start to generate.

The Small Modular Reactor programme promises lower energy production costs but there is no hard evidence to support this claim. What we will get for certain is large numbers of these power plants spread all over the country that will raise safety concerns over proliferation of nuclear materials and terrorist attacks.

Happy days ahead!

Gordon Murray
Lanark

DOES anyone seriously believe Vlad (the Invader) Putin will stop his totalitarian aims even if he manages to take over Ukraine?

It’s entirely likely his other close neighbours will also be under serious threat of Russian invasion.

These countries – Finland, Poland, Norway, Georgia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Ukraine – have a total population of more than 110 million people. (Of course, this fails to take into account the number of people who will also be fleeing from Russia.) Unless Putin is stopped the world will have a humanitarian crisis on its hands.

Nato must introduce a no-fly zone over Ukraine and Western powers must do more to cut off Putin’s financial sources.

Stephen McCarthy
Glasgow

YOU can now apply online for a visa to come to the UK, the message from the Westminster government to the fleeing innocent of Ukraine!

By this action, the UK Government is asking the people fleeing for their lives: do you have your passport, do you have access to the internet? Do you have access to electricity to charge those devices?

People fleeing for their lives, standing in all they have, this is an outrage! Finally, this only comes into effect on March 15 – what do Ukrainians do meantime. Shameful!

Catriona C Clark
Falkirk

I INVITE all readers and their friends and relatives with access to the internet, to google “sociopathy definition”, whereupon they’ll be able to see the symptoms of this terrible affliction. When they finish reading the list, they will then be fully aware that the Prime Minister of the UK has, in the past few years, displayed ALL of them.

Deeply worrying, especially for the gullible numpties who voted for him.

Barry Stewart
Blantyre

WHAT does Douglas Ross’s U-turn in demanding Boris Johnson’s resignation regarding “partygate” tell us about the Scottish Conservative leader? It tells us that this is a man with no self-respect, dignity or influence within his own political group. A man who will debase himself to cling to his job in the face of overwhelming evidence that his leader is a mendacious, hypocritical and amoral scoundrel of Trumpian proportions.

Owen Kelly
Stirling

I LAUGHED at Xander Richards’s piece on disinformation and that our supine Tory MP John Lamont has written to Twitter regarding the lies they have allowed being spread by the Russian government. Mr Lamont should just circulate the same letter around the Tory press substituting the Russian Government for Boris Johnson.

Ken McCartney
Hawick