Sir, – I read with interest and real concern your article considering the published safety review of the UK nuclear industry, following the Fukushima incident, by the Chief UK Nuclear Inspector (Mark Hennessy, World News, October 12th).
Our assessment of the final report is one of extreme disappointment. We believe the report to be rushed, complacent and quite clearly not a green light for new nuclear build, as the UK government is interpreting it. In our submission to the chief nuclear inspector we highlighted serious design concerns over proposed new reactors, deep misgivings with the failure of the probabilistic risk assessment model, the need for a fully open and wide-ranging nuclear emergency planning review and the lack of consideration in the report given to land, airborne and marine pollution arising from the Fukushima disaster.
Your article highlights another serious issue that lay under the gloss of this report – that of the alarming amount of facilities at Sellafield that do not meet modern design requirements. We know of many serious incidents at Sellafield over the past three decades and this report does not fill me with any confidence that we will not see more of the same.
Above all, if many of the facilities do not meet “modern design requirements” how can new reactors be built on or near this site at Sellafield? What needs to happen is that these inherently high-risk series of facilities be completely made safe and no new reactors should ever be built there. I urge Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan to make a robust public response to this narrow report and these concerns around Sellafield. Clean up Sellafield, don’t heap yet more risk on to this site. – Yours, etc,