Speeches by Collinge.

“If it does turn out to be harder to deal with or costlier, where should the accountability for that lie?”

“We have heard evidence that quite a lot of waste already in the UK could be reused for various things; for instance plutonium could be used as a fuel in a mixed oxide reactor, and it could also be used in nuclear medicine or in space batteries for long-term space exploration. But the Government policy—certainly for plu…”

“So essentially, we already have a problem or a thing that we need to do, and your view is that this does not materially add to it.”

“Heysham is lovely.”

“I want to talk about decommissioning and waste. Over the lifetime of nuclear energy, we have seen the nature and type of waste change quite a lot, from the very problematic stuff at the beginning to a much better picture now for the defueling of, for instance, Heysham 1 and 2 in my constituency. I want to know whether …”

“This panel is all about resilience and security of energy supply. Last week, we spoke to a delegation of Ukrainian parliamentarians who unfortunately have huge experience in what happens when you do not have a resilient energy system. They were telling us about how they diversified their energy mix, including particula…”

“Today’s session is on energy security and resilience. Obviously, events in the middle east will have an impact on that and on prices. Certainly, my constituents have noted prices, particularly for heating oil, being problematic for them. I would like to understand the perspective from the various industries represented…”

“Sorry, can you explain what refineries do, what products come out of them and therefore what the benefit is for our country?”

“I am just aware of time, so can we move on? Can I ask Alex what the impact on him has been?”

“What about from a customer point of view? We were told that, for those who could afford them, a lot of people had solar panels and batteries at home. Obviously, a lot of people could not afford them. Do you think the UK should be increasing its use of battery storage domestically as well?”

“What do you think are the things we can do most quickly, given that we are in the middle of a crisis that will inevitably impact prices? It hopefully will not impact supply, but it will definitely impact prices. What are the quickest things that you think we can do?”

“Are there currently any barriers or things that need to change in terms of regulation to allow that to happen?”

“I do not have very much time left, so I just want to move on to petrol. Obviously, consumers see the price at the pump, and that is one of the first impacts they see and feel. From a retailer’s perspective, how has the Iran conflict affected how you operate, what you supply to your customers and at what price?”

“Finally, we have heard that, in crisis, prices rocket up and then float down like a feather. Do you expect that to be the case even when the strait of Hormuz is open again and the supply is turned back on? Do you expect prices to come down very slowly? Do you expect them to come down quickly? What would be the normal p…”

“Finally, if we can flip to looking at defence rather than energy, our defence capabilities currently rely very heavily on liquid fuels. That in itself creates a vulnerability and a cost issue. How do you think UK energy and defence policy should balance that speed of decarbonisation with operation and security prioriti…”

“That links to something we heard in the last panel. Part of the reason that our supplies are secure here is that we can outbid other parts of the world. In the longer term, assuming the strait is open, but prices are high and we are still feeling the impact, we can outbid other parts of the world. That raises questions…”

“It would be a fool’s game.”

“What do you think are the things we can do most quickly, given that we are in the middle of a crisis that will inevitably impact prices? It hopefully will not impact supply, but it will definitely impact prices. What are the quickest things that you think we can do?”

“This panel is all about resilience and security of energy supply. Last week, we spoke to a delegation of Ukrainian parliamentarians who unfortunately have huge experience in what happens when you do not have a resilient energy system. They were telling us about how they diversified their energy mix, including particula…”

“What about from a customer point of view? We were told that, for those who could afford them, a lot of people had solar panels and batteries at home. Obviously, a lot of people could not afford them. Do you think the UK should be increasing its use of battery storage domestically as well?”