The earthquake in Japan and the popular uprisings in North Africa and
the Middle East have grabbed the attention and sympathy of the world
over the last few weeks. The earthquake is the third greatest ever
recorded and the uprisings remind us of the great wave of people power
that brought down the communist dictatorships of Eastern Europe in
1989. Both also have an important consideration for us at home with
regards to energy policy and the future of nuclear power at Dungeness.
The situation in North Africa and the Middle East, particularly in
countries like Saudi Arabia and Libya, has reminded us how instability
in that region can affect the world. Any major disturbance in oil
production could restrict supply, damaging economies and putting up
prices. Greater security in our energy sources so that we are less
reliant on imported oil and gas, as supplies from the North Sea start
to run down, is therefore increasingly important. Whilst renewable
energy from the wind and the sea has a positive contribution to make,
the technology that can deliver us a secure supply of low carbon power
is nuclear energy.
Since my election I have been campaigning for the Government to
include Dungeness on the list of recommended sites for a new nuclear
power station, and understandably the earthquake in Japan and
subsequent damage to the reactors at Fukushima has led people to ask
whether we can still rely on this technology. Firstly, as a father of
two young children I wouldn’t support anything that I thought would
pose an unnecessary risk to future and present generations. Nuclear
power in the UK has an excellent safety record and an important role
to play in meeting our future energy needs; a point I made to Prime
Minister, and received his support on at question time in the House of
Commons last week.
The Government has said that it will study the situation in Japan to
see if there are any lessons for power stations here, but there are a
few points to note which I think provide some reassurance. The
reactors in Japan were not damaged directly by either the earthquake
or the tsunami but a fault that meant that there was not an adequate
back up supply of energy to keep the reactor’s cooling systems
running. We do not have any power stations built to this 1960s design
in the UK. The Government also assesses the risks to nuclear power
stations from earthquakes and severe weather from the sea, like a
tsunami. Dungeness passed these tests in its site report, so they
would not be a barrier to a new power station being built here.
Finally we know that Great Britain is a very low risk area for major
earthquakes. We sit in the middle of one of the plates on the Earth’s
surface whereas Japan is at the junction of four, which means that
like California it experiences the kind of very major earthquakes that
we do not get here.