Remarks visiting Capenhurst (nuclear power)
| Document type: | Speeches, interviews, etc. |
|---|---|
| Venue: | Capenhurst, Cheshire |
| Source: | ITN Archive: OUP transcript |
| Journalist: | Vernon Mann, ITN, reporting |
| Editorial comments: | 0945-1120. MT spent the day touring nuclear installations in the North West of England: Capenhurst, Springfields, Heysham, and Sellafield. "At all four sites, Mrs Thatcher expressed her belief in an expanding nuclear industry and said she was confident it would soon overcome its disposal problem" (BBC Radio News Report 1800 1 November 1985). |
| Importance ranking: | Minor |
| Word count: | 310 |
| Themes: | Energy, Environment |
Vernon Mann
Mrs Thatcher began her whirlwind tour of Britain's most important nuclear sites at Capenhurst in Cheshire. And even the best laid turfs went astray as a helicopter landed, leaving welcoming officials with, almost literally, mud on their faces. The Prime Minister was amused; the gardener probably wasn't, though she did pause to put a bit of the lawn back. Then it was inside and down to the business of praising the industry and dismissing fears about nuclear waste.
MT
Yes, there are ways of dealing with the waste, but at the moment it does have to be very carefully put in containers and kept on land. Some of it, as you know, is kept on the site of nuclear power stations, otherwise we are looking at places. But can I just point out that radiation which comes from nuclear energy is a minute proportion of radiation that comes from medical use? And medical use is but a small proportion of the radiation which we get naturally. So one has to keep it in perspective.
Vernon Mann
Then to Springfields, near Preston, where they turn raw uranium into sophisticated fuels and contain them in sealed rods or pins. Mrs Thatcher inspected the spot welds. And finally to Sellafields [sic], formerly Windscale, where spent nuclear fuels are reprocessed and stored. The Prime Minister opened a new fuel-handling complex there. There's concern amongst environmentalists and some MPs that the methods used here are far too expensive and leave behind far too much nuclear waste. So there's a big question mark now over the future of the massive Thorpe reprocessing plant now being built here, and, despite Mrs Thatcher's reassuring words, the nuclear industry has yet to convince the general public that the nuclear waste and its disposal is really nothing to worry about. Vernon Mann, News at Ten, Sellafield, West Cumbria.