Nuclear Accidents: Reporting Procedures (Hansard, 24 January 1989)

§ Baroness Hooper
My Lords, the fire which occurred in October 1957 in a nuclear pile at Windscale was not concealed from the public. Indeed, a detailed White Paper on the accident was published within a month and a further three White Papers within a year of the fire. No comparable accident has since occurred at a nuclear plant in this country.
Reporting procedures ensure that any incidents at nuclear sites which might be of safety significance are reported in site newsletters, each of which is placed in the Libraries of the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

§ Lord Hatch of Lusby
My Lords, is the Minister aware that there were two accidents at Windscale in 1957? The one to which I referred—if the noble Baroness has read the Macmillan papers which were released at the beginning of the year she will know of it—was an accident that happened before the fire occurred. It was an accident that infected over 800 farms which were supplying milk that was drunk by members of the public while the Medical Advisory Council was reducing the limit on Strontium 90 in milk. This was concealed from the public. How many more times have such accidents been concealed from the public, especially in view of the fact that there is a widespread belief that over the past two years, since the Chernobyl disaster, the public have consumed a great deal of lamb that has been contaminated by nuclear fallout?

§ Baroness Hooper
My Lords, the incident to which the noble Lord refers was an unplanned release of Strontium 90 earlier in 1957. The fire accident took place in October 1957. This was reported. The release of the papers on 1st January this year was by no means the first report of that incident.
I can assure your Lordships that all information on radioactive discharges has been given to either the Black Committee or the Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment. Both of those committees have looked at the possible effects on health of the fire and other incidents, and indeed, 595 at the whole of the site's operations through the years.

§ Lord Hailsham of Saint Marylebone
My Lords, I was Lord President of the Council at that time in 1957. Will my noble friend confirm that twice in the course of two confused and rambling questions the noble Lord, Lord Hatch of Lusby, has seriously misled the House? Quantities of milk had to be destroyed and that would not have been possible without the fullest publicity—which was given. Can my noble friend confirm that?

§ Baroness Hooper
My Lords, I am grateful to my noble and learned friend for clarifying the record.

§ Lord Williams of Elvel
My Lords, the House will be very grateful to the Minister for her Answer to my noble friend. Is it the case that the convention on nuclear accidents, to which the Government are a signatory, does not provide for any dissemination of information to the public about accidents that may take place and that this issue was the object of our attention at the Second Reading of the Atomic Energy Bill? Will she confirm her view that such accidents are reported and therefore that information about them is available to the public? At this point will she indicate her acceptance of an amendment to that effect to the Atomic Energy Bill?

§ Baroness Hooper
My Lords, I must not pre-empt the discussions and decisions of your Lordships' House. However, the independent Nuclear Installations Inspectorate, which was set up as a consequence of the Windscale fire, has proved that valuable lessons have been learnt as a result of that accident and has formed the basis of today's safety culture. We believe that the United Kingdom's nuclear industry has a safety record that is second to none.
As I indicated in my original response, all incidents and matters concerning safety are reported to the public through the site newsletter system in various ways—through the local liaison committees and local newspapers as well as via the medium of the Houses of Parliament. So there is very little risk of any incident which would not come immediately to the notice of the wider public.

§ Lord Harmar-Nicholls
My Lords, is my noble friend aware that the Question she has just answered implies that terrifying information was deliberately concealed from the public? Since noble Lords are responsible for the accuracy of any Questions tabled on the Order Paper, is it in order for the country to be disquieted by a Question which carries an implication that has such a possible consequence?

§ Baroness Hooper
My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend for raising that point. There can be no doubt that in the 1950s there was a level of secrecy surrounding nuclear matters that would be quite inappropriate for today's civil nuclear programme.

§ Lord Glenamara
My Lords, will the Minister pay tribute to the work that is now being done at Windscale to make the public more informed about what goes on? The new large public information centre was visited last year by tens of thousands of people who now know very much more about nuclear energy than they did previously. Does she agree that this example could be followed more widely?

§ Baroness Hooper
My Lords, today the industry makes enormous efforts to inform the public about nuclear matters through publications and allowing site visits. When I visited Sellafield last year I was informed that it was the fastest growing tourist attraction in the country.

§ Lord Hatch of Lusby
My Lords, is the Minister aware that all the information to which I referred in my supplementary question as well as in my original Question is drawn directly from the Macmillan papers that were released at the beginning of this year? Is she further aware that it is stated in those papers that the object of the Government was to prevent a public panic and outcry against the use of nuclear energy and that a proposal by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Hailsham, who was then Lord President of the Council, to hold a debate in the House of Lords on the effect of radioactivity on the environment was blocked? And that—

Noble Lords
Question! Order!

§ Lord Hatch of Lusby
And, my Lords, that the then Home Secretary, Rab Butler, wrote on one of the minutes of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Hailsham—and this is a quotation: What is clear is that we certainly don't want such a debate in the Commons; ergo we don't want to encourage a debate in the Lords". Is she aware of that?

§ Baroness Hooper
My Lords, I suspect that the information of the noble Lord, Lord Hatch, comes not so much from the Macmillan papers as from an article in the Observer which appeared on 1st January this year. I can only reaffirm that the present Government are committed to openness in the nuclear industry.

The Earl of Halsbury
My Lords, is it not time that we had a close season until 1st January 1990 for this Question? We shall then know whether the government indulged in any skulduggery during 1960. If the noble Lord, Lord Hatch, will wait patiently year by year until something positive emerges, we can be spared this kind of thing at Question Time.

A noble Lord
My Lords, make it 1st April!