1 year ago
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The warning given yesterday by leading scientist Sir David King that London and other UK coastal cities could be inundated in the future by a gigantic tsunami reveals that coastal nuclear power developments in the South-East of England would also be under a ‘grave threat’, says UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities English Forum Chair Councillor David Blackburn.
Sir David King was for seven years Chief Scientific Advisor to the British Government. In widely reported press articles yesterday, Sir David warned that a gigantic tsunami could hit Britain ‘at any time’ should there be a landslide in the Canary Islands, which would trigger a huge wave headed for this country. In such an eventuality, coastal cities such as Portsmouth, Plymouth and Southampton would be inundated and so too would London and the Thames Estuary, and much of low-lying South-East England.
Councillor Blackburn and NFLA Secretary Richard Outram last summer visited two sites in South-East England, Sizewell, Suffolk and Bradwell, Essex, both locations by the coast where there are existing nuclear plants in operation or being decommissioned and where there are plans for new nuclear power developments.
To Cllr Blackburn, Sir David’s remarks are prescient: “At the time of our visit to Sizewell, I remarked how close the current plants, Sizewell A and B, and any future plant, Sizewell C, were to the coastline, and how that coastline is already subject to pronounced erosion and will in the future be subject to rising sea levels and storm surges because of climate change. Sir David’s comments that a gigantic tsunami could hit South-East England ‘in 10,000 years’ time or tomorrow’ demonstrates that to build more plants at coastal locations like Bradwell and Sizewell is madness”.
The timing of Sir David’s comments could not be more appropriate because last Saturday 11th March campaigners opposed to nuclear power the world over marked the passing of the 12th anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster in North-East Japan.
Councillor Blackburn added: Fukushima demonstrates exactly what could happen if a tsunami hit a nuclear power plant in the South-East of England. For the flood waters would not simply stop at the Thames.
“At Fukushima, on 11 March 2011, first an earthquake and then a tsunami hit the power plant. The earthquake caused the reactors to shut down cutting off the power for cooling. Emergency generators kicked in. The emergency generators were flooded by the waters of the tsunami. Without power for cooling, there occurred a series of meltdowns and explosions in three of the reactors which led to the release of atmospheric radiation.
“Over 160,000 people were evacuated from the region, many died as a result and the people affected continue to suffer. The impact of the Fukushima disaster is still being faced today. The impact in the more populous South-East of England would be far greater still. Avoiding such a possibility is one of many reasons why local campaigners and the NFLA remain opposed to new nuclear developments at Bradwell and Sizewell.”
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Please direct enquiries to Richard Outram, NFLA Secretary, by email to richard.outram@manchester.gov.uk
