TERRORISM
Nuclear power plants are vulnerable to terrorist attack and pose a serious threat to the population of Britain claim campaigners.
Since the attack on the twin towers in New York and the more recent 7/7 bombings in London, campaigners have highlighted the potential danger of a terrorist attack on nuclear power.
This vulnerability has recently been heightened after a secret Electricite de France (EDF) document revealed the new European Pressurised Reactors (EPR) being considered for new build nuclear may not withstand a terrorist attack.
Greenpeace campaigner Nathan Argent said: “The transportation and storage or radioactive waste and indeed nuclear reactors themselves are a prime terrorist target.”
Defending new build nuclear Charles Hendry, the Conservative shadow minister for energy science and technology, argued that new-build designs currently being built in France and Finland have been built with a terrorist threat in mind.
He said: “I think we need to recognise in terms of technology of construction that safety has moved on incredibly in recent years and the people who would be responsible for building, running and working in these nuclear power plants do believe they could deal with any threats.”
However the current way in which the UK stores radioactive waste is also causing some concern. Energy spokesperson for the Green Party Tom Tibbits, said: “Sellafield is a big complex which contains the slightly old and bad condition warehouses and silos, where a great deal of nuclear waste is currently stored.
“To my mind that is a significant threat from a terrorist attack such as bomb attack, light aircraft attack or some other similar terrorist style sortie.”
British Energy wants to reassure the public that they take every effort to safeguard against a terrorist attack by investing huge sums of money in security. They also work very closely with government regulators from the office of civil nuclear security taking and implementing their advice where necessary.
Public relations officer Martin Pearce said: “Terrorism is a way of life now so we have to defend against it and the nuclear industry is no different. But in terms of whether we are at risk is purely speculation, we can only be as secure as we can and as safe as we can and continue to generate 20% of the UK’s electricity.”