Scotland will have to rely on foreign suppliers for its energy and will lose jobs and expertise because of the SNP government’s opposition to nuclear power, leading industry figures said yesterday.

Peter Hughes, chief executive of Scottish Engineering, said that Scotland was facing an energy gap when its existing nuclear stations reached the end of their lives and alternative sources were unable to generate equivalent amounts of power. Torness, in East Lothian, is due to begin decommissioning in 2023, while Hunterston B, in Ayrshire, will last until 2016.

Dr Hughes spoke out after Ed Miliband, the UK Energy Secretary, paved the way for a major expansion of nuclear power south of the Border by earmarking 10 sites suitable for plants. Although energy policy is a reserved matter planning is devolved, which means that Holyrood is able to determine whether generators will be built on Scottish soil.

“This leaves Scotland in a very disadvantaged position,” Dr Hughes said. “We have been arguing with the Scottish government for some considerable time about the fact the whole of the UK needs a balanced, sustainable and secure energy supply.”

The announcement came as the Dounreay power station in Caithness marked its 50-year anniversary. The plant, which marked out Scotland as the world leader in nuclear power, is being decommissioned. Dr Hughes said that, as well as extensive nuclear generation experience, Scotland was skilled in decommissioning and was thus ideally placed for development.

“If we send out the message that Scotland is closed for nuclear, the technology and expertise will vanish like snow off the proverbial dyke,” he said.

He said that clean coal and renewable energy sources would be insufficiently developed to fill the gap left by nuclear power and that Scotland would have to import its energy. “It’s all very well Alex Salmond saying we are going to be a nuclear-free country but he will have to import [energy] from England and it will be produced by nuclear,” he said.

He added that a country without its own secure energy was vulnerable to hostile regimes making unsavoury demands in exchange for power.

A spokesman for the Scottish government rejected Dr Hughes’ analysis and claimed that there were many opportunities to develop jobs, skills and intellectual property in renewables and clean energy technologies.

Jim Mather, the Energy Minister, said: “The circumstances of the debate south of the Border are totally different to the situation in Scotland.”

He said that renewables could generate up to 10 times the country’s electricity needs, and already provided a fifth. There were plans to create at least 16,000 jobs in Scotland over the next decade, he added.

Iain Gray, the Labour leader, accused the SNP of cutting-off Scotland from jobs and forcing it to buy electricity. Gavin Brown, the Tory energy spokesman, said: “There is a serious danger of there being an energy gap in Scotland.”

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