Dame Sue Ion, veteran nuclear fuels expert

The upcoming General Election has already been billed as historic. Not only has the surprise performance of Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg in the TV leaders’ debates breathed life into an otherwise dull campaign, but the widespread unpopularity of both the Conservatives and Labour could mean that, for the first time in over three decades, the UK will be faced with a hung parliament.

But of all the criticism levied at a possible coalition, the potential for the Lib Dems to halt the UK’s nuclear new-build programme has been the one to cause major concern among some quarters of the engineering community. Dr Sue Ion, one of the country’s leading nuclear experts, has warned that if the policy goes ahead, it would have a devastating impact on Britain’s ability to ’keep the lights on’.

’The Lib Dems must recognise that when we get to large quantities of wind power, we also need back-up generation,’ said Ion. ’In a 21st century industrialised urban society we will always need a significant amount of centralised generation while renewables are being built. There has been a lack of consulting with engineers in the past on this issue and that needs to start happening.’