Westminster and Edinburgh in nuclear stand off

The controversy surrounding the UK's plans for a new generation of nuclear reactors was thrown into sharp relief today when climate change and energy secretary Ed Miliband become embroiled in a spat with Scottish first minister Alex Salmond over Scotland's ban on new nuclear development.

Speaking ahead of the Cabinet's first meeting in Scotland for almost 90 years, Miliband told BBC Radio Scotland that the Scottish Government's plan to block new nuclear power plants meant the country would miss out on sizable economic benefits.

"I disagree with the position the Scottish Executive have taken on this," he said. "There are a huge number of jobs – it's 9,000 jobs per nuclear power station with huge benefits for the economy."

He added that the Hunterston B nuclear reactor in Scotland would be decommissioned in the middle of the next decade and that under the Scottish Government's current policy the site would not be renewed.

Current nuclear sites at Hunterston B and Torness in Scotland were left off the government's shortlist of locations for new nuclear reactors, which was released yesterday.

"I think that's a shame for Scotland in industrial terms and I don't think it's the right decision for the United Kingdom in energy terms, but it does remain a decision for Scotland," said Miliband.

But Salmond immediately hit back at Miliband's comments and, echoing the stance of many green groups, he insisted that it made more sense for Scotland to focus its energy budget on building up new renewables capacity.

"As opposed to talking about nuclear jobs which might be years away from construction, decades away from production, in the past few weeks in Scotland we have announced 500 offshore wind jobs in construction," he told the BBC. "These are actual jobs which are being created now in technologies which are being deployed now and technologies where Scotland has a huge substantial, natural advantage as opposed to nuclear technologies where Scotland has no advantage whatsoever."