THE quotes from Greenpeace in your article, "The need to go nuclear" (Echo, May 24) are, I'm afraid, typical of such organisations in that they are either wrong, or they demand the completely impractical.

Current designs of nuclear power stations create a small fraction of the waste generated by our old designs of reactor and they are both easier and quicker to build.

Furthermore, the football stadium (Wembley) was not commissioned by a private company needing to get a return on its investment; another football stadium (Arsenal's new ground) was completed on-time, to budget and to specification.

Also, we have about 300 years of coal left in the UK, not 30 as mentioned in your report.

While I agree with Greenpeace that we should look to reduce energy demand, it is made quite difficult by the fact that the population of the country has increased by 20 per cent since the first nuclear power stations were built, and is going to increase still further in the next 20 years.

Personally, I'd far rather have modern, safe, near-zero emission nuclear power using uranium supplied from countries such as Canada and Australia, than rely on carbon-producing gas-fired power using fuel supplied from Russia.

Derek Thornton, Stanley Crook, Co Durham.