Wednesday 12 October 2011

Nuclear safety report will reassure the public

The public should be reassured by the Chief Nuclear Inspector's report on the lessons to be learned from the nuclear crisis at Fukushima in Japan. This is the view of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (Imeche), which has welcomed the report and says it is now vital to progress plans for new nuclear as quickly as possible.

Dr Mike Weightman's final safety report for the Government found that there were "no fundamental weaknesses" with UK nuclear facilities.

Alistair Smith, Chairman of the Power Industry Division at Imeche said: "This meticulous review should reassure the public that UK nuclear engineers work to the most stringent safety regulations and that we will proceed with an even safer regime when building our new generation of nuclear plants over the course of the current decade."

He added: "I hope work can now progress to finalise the Generic Design Assessments in the UK, as the fact remains that without new nuclear power we stand no chance of meeting out climate change obligations and the very real possibility of the UK's lights turning off in a decade's time."