COLUMNIST Peter Mullen (Echo, Feb 20) and correspondent Eric Gendle (HAS, Feb 22) both make a number of interesting points, but the reality is that nuclear power only produces two things - electricity and waste.

While its construction, running and maintenance still remains dependant upon other resources, including oil to make the plastics, lubricants, etc, which power the machines which construct and service these power stations.

The truth behind the present conflict within Iraq lies within the depletion of the West's oilfields, which in the long term will cause increasingly more conflicts as other resources are depleted.

If the human race is to have a future we need to put our differences aside, stop killing each other to obtain control of what resources remain, or force religious beliefs onto others, and work together as a species to develop the technology which would allow us to exploit the resources of our solar system, while we still have the resources to do so.

If we do otherwise, our remaining resources will one day be depleted or we will no longer have the means to power the machinery needed to extract them, nor those needed to produce and transport food.

CT Riley, Spennymoor, Co Durham.