Airport expansion is 'Fukushima in the making': protester
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by Dan Bloom and Jess Banham
kentishexpress@thekmgroup.co.uk
"Fukushima in the making" - that is how anti-airport campaigners
branded the air crash risk to Dungeness power station this
week.
Despite being branded "scaremongering rubbish" by pro-airport
groups, campaigners likened the dangers posed to the nuclear plant
to the tsunami-hit Japanese station Fukushima Daiichi and even the
Titanic.
The claims emerged during the government inquiry into Lydd
Airport's plans for a runway extension and new terminal.
Former nuclear researcher John Large was due to
tell the inquiry: "An apposite analogy is that SS Titanic was
a small dot in an expansive ocean, but it collided with a small ice
floe and, as a result, the unsinkable ship sank."
But Tim Crompton, of Supporters of Lydd Airport, said: "It's
absolute scaremongering rubbish. If the Nuclear Installations
Inspectorate (NII) were concerned there was a danger of aircraft
crashing into the nuclear power station, they would have had an
objection and they didn't.
"The reactor is built to withstand an air collision with a
Boeing 707. Okay, you'd damage the generator, but you wouldn't get
anywhere near the core."
Mr Large is one of four experts due to speak on nuclear safety
for the Lydd Airport Action Group (LAAG) over four days, ending on
Tuesday.
LAAG campaigners crowded outside Folkestone's Civic Centre for
the first day yesterday (Wednesday), with t-shirts bearing the
controversial slogan "60 seconds to disaster".
Runway safety expert David Pitfield was due to question the
accuracy of the government Health and Safety Executive's crash risk
data, devised in 1997.
He said the number of birds at the nearby RSPB reserve, together
with no-fly zones around Dungeness and Lydd Ranges, meant crash
risks were higher then official estimates.
He admitted they would still be confined to about 0.000016
crashes per two million passengers - but called this "an
unacceptable rate."
Consultant Malcolm Spaven, also for LAAG, was due today to
question yet more data from 1988 by the NII.
Meanwhile a LAAG statement stood by the "Fukushima in the
making" claim, adding: "Even though John Large believes the
reinforced concrete vessel of each reactor at Dungeness B would
withstand an aircraft crash, subsidiary equipment failures could
lead to a very significant radiological release, mirroring the
situation at Fukushima."
But Mr Crompton said: "You wouldn't be able to hit the power
station without breaking the plane. The end of the runway is
actually at right angles to the station."
Wednesday, May 18 2011
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