Is nuclear safe? ...As safe as any system that involves humans ie intrinsically unsafe!

BNFL memoir revives nuclear safety fears


• Ex-industry boss sheds light on Sellafield panic

• Greenpeace calls for fresh review of atomic industry

Terry Macalister

guardian.co.uk, Sunday 7 March 2010 21.24 GMT

Former British Nuclear Fuels director Harold Bolter recalls industry panic over 1990 report on clusters of illness surrounding the Sellafield plant. Photograph: Don McPhee
The autobiography of a former director of British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) is likely to reignite fears about the safety of nuclear power, as Britain prepares for a new generation of reactors, by exposing the panic that rocked the industry two decades ago when a link was suggested between radiation and childhood leukaemia.

At its height, workers at Sellafield were advised not to have children, while bosses at the Cumbrian nuclear complex even proposed establishing a sperm bank or calling for "radiation volunteers" from among older workers in order to reduce levels of exposure for workers of child-bearing age.

The Tenth Child, by Harold Bolter, a former chairman of the Nuclear Industry Association, reveals the extent of concern within the industry following a damaging report into clusters of illness around the Cumbrian reprocessing facility in the 1990s. It comes as Britain prepares to build up to half a dozen nuclear power stations, some of them possibly sited in that area.

Greenpeace said last night that there should be a major review of nuclear plants before any decision was made to construct new ones. Ben Ayliffe, senior energy campaigner, said: "The nuclear industry has a long history of evasion and dishonesty … Greenpeace is reviving its call for a public inquiry into all impacts of nuclear power – including health effects."

Bolter, a former BNFL director, describes as a "public relations disaster" comments by Roger Berry, then director of health and safety at the company, that some staff at Sellafield should make sacrifices to protect the health of future generations following a study by Professor Martin Gardner, published in 1990, that had suggested a link between external radiation received by male staff at Sellafield and the development of cancer among their children.

Pressed for a response to the report, Berry told reporters: "It may be that the proper advice is if you are so worried then maybe you do not have a family." He is also said to have earlier suggested that the company establish a sperm bank or called for "radiation volunteers" from among older workers.

Bolter says he publicly repudiated Berry's comments, claiming they were not company policy and promising BNFL would offer medical counselling to Sellafield staff.

"Once again, I had been forced to make company policy on the hoof, as it were, under pressure," Bolter writes in his book. "There was no time to consult anyone or to get approval. I didn't know what the chief executive or chairman's reaction would be, although I was sure Roger Berry wouldn't like what I said." He goes on: "Roger Berry felt badly let down. I tried to explain to him that what I'd said was the only way to protect the company – and probably his career as wellfor that matter."

BNFL, which has now been dismantled, handed over management of Sellafield to a group of private contractors including Areva of France.

The book has been published just as Britain prepares to build a new generation of atomic power plants for the first time in 30 years in an attempt to improve energy security and help beat climate change. The debate around the risk of nuclear power to public health gradually died down, partly as a result of a test case in the high court where BNFL was cleared of causing cancers in two women whose fathers had worked at Sellafield.

But more recently the issue has again been raised by government-funded research, known as the KiKK study, which appeared to show an increased risk of cancer in children under five years living near nuclear power plants in Germany.

Janine Allis-Smith, one of the women who took BNFL to court after her son contracted leukaemia, said last night the Bolter book and the KiKK study demanded a wider debate in Britain.

"With the government about to embark on a series of new nuclear power stations – including in Cumbria – it is time this health issue was properly looked at again. I have been trying to raise it for many years but it has just been pushed under the carpet again and again," she argued.

"Many people in this area [Cumbria] do not want to know because they want to retain their jobs at Sellafield. Comare [the committee looking into radiation and public health] is working on a report but it may not be out before the go-ahead is given for new plants, which I think is appalling."

Dr Ian Fairlie, an independent consultant who is writing a book on radiation risks and who has previously advised government departments, said the KiKK report was authoritative as it had been commissioned by the German government and its findings had been verified by them.He said: "In my view, the KiKK report is a showstopper for the government's plans for more nuclear power stations. It's impossible to justify killing children near nuclear power plants: there are many safer ways to generate electricity."