Living Under The Volcano-----The Tsunami

LIVING UNDER THE VOLCANO




Our Government has once again come up with a master stroke of short term thinking and muddled strategy. It is proposing that a new Nuclear Power Station and radioactive waste storage site should be built at Oldbury on Severn , in the exact place that was devastated by a tsunami on 30th January 1607. Considering the fact that the coastline of Britain extends to some 7723 miles, I find myself wondering if this is the wisest place to consider. We know for a fact that sea levels are rising and that the Severn Estuary has the second highest tidal rise and fall in the world.

The last tsunami affected over 354 miles of our coastline, killing more than 2000 people in its wake and flooding an area as far inland as Glastonbury . The force of the waters tossed giant rocks around all along the coast leaving them stacked up like dominos.

Dr Haslett of Bath Spa University College and Dr Bryant conducted a geological survey of the estuary in 2004 and concluded that “two large chunks of farmland... were simply washed away, one where the foundation of the Second Severn Crossing is and the other is now the reservoir for the Oldbury Nuclear Power Station”. If and when another tsunami were to hit a such a proposed nuclear facility, will all nuclear contamination be contained. We know that even under normal conditions at Sellafield Nuclear processing and storage facility that they have had instances of radioactive contamination nearby and worrying Leukaemia clusters.


A possible cause of the suggested tsunami is not yet known, but the possibilities include a submarine landslide off the continental shelf between Ireland and Cornwall , or an earthquake along an active fault system in the sea south of Ireland . This fault system has apparently experienced an earthquake greater than magnitude 4 on the Richter scale within the last 20 years, so the chance of a bigger tsunami earthquake is a possibility.

If our Government was in charge of planning in the U.S.A., I have little doubt that they would consider building their next Nuclear Plant straddling the San Andreas fault in San Francisco, “because it hasn’t shifted for a bit!

When the waters come it seems distinctly possible to me that the entire region could become contaminated. Perhaps we should twin somewhere in the area with Chernobyl now and get it over with.

Ashley Haigh, Thornbury, South Gloucestershire