I’ve been passionately against nuclear energy for many many years. Nuclear energy uses Uranium and results in nuclear waste that will be left with our descendants for millennia upon millennia. It also has nuclear weapon proliferation risks and masses of hidden subsidies. Nuclear energy from uranium is part of the environmental problem not the solution.

But it transpires this is only part of the nuclear landscape of options.

Significant work took place from the 50’s to 70’s on producing energy from Thorium. Thorium was never popular with governments as its doesn’t result in nuclear weapons grade by-products. It also doesn’t have the nuclear waste issue of Uranium nuclear power.

So what’s stopping us deploying Thorium nuclear power?

Institutional inertia mostly. One small step towards removing it will hopefully come from the All Parliamentary Group set-up earlier this year. I’m chuffed to see so many members of this group being Lib Dems. UK plc needs to starting investing in this technology.