Inquiry into implications of Fukushima for UK nuclear power industry

Following are some points you might want to make in relation to the inquiry Dr Mike Weightman the Chief Nuclear Inspector, is conducting into the implications of the Fukushima disaster and the implications for the UK nuclear power industry.

 1. The inquiry will report in May 2011. Even if this is an interim report this seems very early for the lessons from Fukushima to be learnt. It would be interesting to know how this timeframe has been decided.

 2. The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change has said that the UK is in a very different position from Japan, which is vulnerable to strong earthquakes and tsunamis. However nuclear power stations in UK will be vulnerable to coastal sea rise, tidal surges, terrorist attacks and air strikes in the event of conflict.

 3. With increasing evidence of the effects of radiation on health, the inquiry should not focus on safety alone. If the accumulated evidence of the health effects of radiation were included in the balance of risk, and the precautionary principle used, it would be clear there should be no nuclear new build. As well as the considerable evidence of the health consequences following previous nuclear accidents, it would be good to draw his attention to the findings of the 2008 German KiKK (Childhood Cancer in the Vicinity of Nuclear Power Plants) study.

 4. The inquiry should also include the unresolved issue of the disposal of nuclear waste and its attendant health effects. In this respect it would be good to draw his attention to the inadequacy of the peer review process of the European Commission Joint Research Centre’s 2009 report that recommended the deep disposal method, and the subsequent report by Genewatch-UK ‘Rock Solid’ that raises the risks associated with this method.   

5. The results of the inquiry are, according to the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, to be ‘applied to the UK’s new build programme'. This gives the impression that, whatever the findings, the new nuclear build will go ahead. This would pre-empt what should be a key consideration of the inquiry.