Letters
Windscale
Sir: Mr Leo Abse, MP, in his article Peter Shore's rule of silence (4 February), accuses the nuclear industry, and me in particular, of trying to rush Mr Shore into a hasty decision on the Windscale Inquiry Report, and the accusation is made that we are trying to help in a bid to gag Parliament.
The allegations are quite untrue. In a recent press statement, one report of which Mr Abse used as a basis for his comments, I made it clear that I fully accepted that whether the report was published before a decision was taken was a matter for Government. I did say that I hoped, there would be a government decision as quickly as possible and pointed out that undue delay in the announcement of a decision could affect BNFL's chances of concluding reprocessing negotiations which have now been going on for several years. At no time have I said that there should not be a parliamentary debate or that the report should not be published before decision. These are matters which I regard as being entirely for Parliament and Government to decide.
Similarly, at no time have I described the demand by some MPs for a parliamentary debate on the inquiry report as a 'well orchestrated public campaign aimed at destroying the nuclear industry'. I applied this description to the campaign being mounted by the Friends of the Earth, who have made no secret of the fact that they intend to try and delay a government decision on the reprecessiag plant for as long as possible, and have announced this policy quite openly in a recent information bulletin. Indeed even before they have seen the result of the inquiry they have announced their intention to hold a mass protest demonstration.
C. Allday Managing Director, British Nuclear Fuels Ltd., Risley, Warrington
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