Press release

From Keith Parker – Chief Executive, UK Nuclear Industry Association

The NIA, which is the representative organisation for the UK’s civil nuclear industry, has been saddened by the tragic events in Japan. Our sympathies are with the Japanese people – and our colleagues in the Japanese nuclear industry.

This sequence of events is of historic proportions. It is now officially the worst-ever recorded earthquake in Japan – a country regularly hit by some of the worst seismic activity in the world.

We welcome the Secretary of State for Energy’s comments and support his view that UK nuclear experts stand ready to help our colleagues in Japan, and the fact that our Chief Nuclear Inspector will be working closely with his Japanese counterparts to ensure that lessons are learned internationally from the events in Japan. The UK’s nuclear experts stand ready to lend assistance Nuclear power stations are some of the most robust buildings ever built – and training and safety culture in the nuclear industry is excellent The chances of a similar earthquake and tsunami happening in Northern Europe are thankfully extremely remote. The science behind these assumptions is well understood.

To put it into perspective the largest-ever recorded earthquake in Northern Europe is many thousand times smaller than the earthquake in Japan.

All UK operating plants are seismically qualified and are built or modified to with stand seismic activity well above and beyond anything ever experienced in the UK Independent Nuclear regulation in the UK is extremely stringent. The regulator has said that it is confident that the UK’s fleet of nuclear power reactors and operators are prepared appropriately for any seismic activity that could be anticipated in the UK.

We welcome the Prime Minister, David Cameron’s statement “that nuclear power should be part of the mix in future, as it is part of the mix right now. Obviously, I am sure that everyone watching the dreadful events in Japan will want to make sure that we learn any lessons. Of course there are big differences: we do not have those reactor designs in the UK, nor do we plan to, and we are not in a similar seismically important and significant area. Nevertheless, I am sure that there will be lessons to learn, and that is why my right honourable.

Friend the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change has asked the head of nuclear inspections and safety to learn the lessons, and to make sure that we do so in our country.

We are keen to see the outcome of the report which will be prepared by the Chief Nuclear Inspector on the implications of the situation in Japan. We believe that this will be of great significance in ensuring that lessons are learned effectively from the ongoing events.