I attended an informative seminar about fracking on April 22, at the Costa café, organised by the Science Festival in conjunction with Vision Group for Sidmouth.

We were given to understand that the assumption our gas bills would be reduced by fracking is seriously challenged, considering the huge cost of setting up the installations and maintaining an adequate amount of supply.

As with all kinds of mining, productivity will decline, and in the case of fracking, would last only a few years.

To maintain it for that length of time, on-shore, it would be necessary to drill three hundred or so new wells each year. So fracking would be a short-term policy, only a stop-gap.

To my own surprise, I am now of the opinion that the way forward is nuclear power, with other sources of energy from renewables, what is commonly called a ‘mix’.

Research has come up with safer and more reliable technologies for nuclear power, and current research is being carried out for storing energy from wind and solar installations, and other potential energy sources.

Aside from this, it is worth noting that although the UK has decreased its C02 output, we import many of our manufactured goods from China and, in that way, we cause a big increase of C02 in the atmosphere. If we do use nuclear power with the ‘mix’ of other kinds of energy for our own manufacturing, we may be able to reduce our imports of both foreign goods and foreign fuel. This would be good for employment, the economy, and the environment, and bring prosperity to the UK.

Miriam Brown

Sidmouth