Fuelling worries
Sir: The use of poetic licence clearly extends beyond quotations from Words- worth in Alexandra Artley's article, 'Going from rad to worse' (6 May).
Much of it is nothing more than a personal anti-nuclear diatribe playing upon people's emotions, and it is peppered with inaccuracies and unattributed points of view.
For instance, the Irish Sea is not the most radioactive in the world. The Red Sea, the Dead Sea, the eastern part of the Mediterranean and the Great Salt Lake, Utah, are all more radioactive. And where is the evidence to support the claim that the Cumbrian coast is `becoming a stigma- tised region', or that Britain is witnessing in Sellafield what is termed in the United States as the birth of a 'contaminated community'?
Also, there is an inference that there is some link between Sellafield operations and a so-called excess of childhood leukaemias 'now known unofficially as the "Ambleside cluster" ', although no evi- dence is offered to support the claim.
There are too many inaccuracies to catalogue. May I simply highlight the most glaring examples? Among them is the reference to an increase in the construction cost of the new reprocessing plant (Thorp) at Sellafield, claimed to be £1,200 million. The actual increase in real costs, as pre- viously announced by BNFL, is £200 mil- lion. This was due principally to higher than projected escalation in plant materials and other costs.
Errors also abound in the author's treat- ment of the Sellafield Visitors Centre one of the country's fastest growing tourist attractions. Far from misleading the pub- lic, the Centre features detailed film foot- age on the Windscale Fire, Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. It also points out that radiation is used in medicine, industry and for defence purposes. There are also sections on waste disposal and discharges, and a reference to leukaemia clusters.
Such a distorted article unnecessarily fuels public worries, and adds nothing to a constructive debate of nuclear issues.
J. A. Preece
Director Information Services British Nuclear Fuels plc, Risley, Warrington, Cheshire
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