Mike Repacholi, of the World Health Organisation radiation programme, said: "“People hear radiation, they think of the atomic bomb and they think of thousands of deaths. They think that the Chernobyl reactor accident was equivalent to the atomic bombing in Japan, which is absolutely untrue."”This sort of stuff has been in the press for a while now. I mentioned it last September, but still I hear the name Chernobyl almost in any of the recent debates about nuclear power in Ireland. There's an almost hysterical reaction to the very idea of nuclear power here.
… The main negative health impacts of Chernobyl were not caused by the radiation, but a fear of it, he said. "“We know that there were low doses of radiation received by a large number of people. We don'’t want to minimise the effects but we also know that the fear and anxiety about radiation was a much greater factor and it'’s this fear which has caused a huge number of health complaints that have overloaded the healthcare system."”
A few weeks ago the Environment Minister, Dick Roche, tried to claim that the electricity we source in the UK will not be generated by nuclear power. Surely he must have thought about the feasibility – what? the British electricity generation companies are going to transfer the electricty bound for Ireland using a separate transmission system? – before he uttered such drivel? If he didn't it's because he knows that to be seen as even allowing nuclear power-generated electricity into Ireland is a mortal sin and he wanted to disassociate himself from such a grave error.
A few years ago there was a postcard campaign (paid for by the government, I think) to try and compel Tony Blair to shut the Sellafield nuclear power plant. The sentiments expressed in that campaign are part of the school curriculum here. The very idea of being pro-nuclear power is so preposterous that teaching kids that nuclear is bad is just fine. It will be at least a generation before there is even a possibility of building a nuclear power plant in Ireland.
