Bill Carmichael: Japan shows nuclear safety

Just a week ago, according to some broadcasters and the internet, we were heading for a certain atomic Armageddon.

We were told a giant cloud of “toxic nuclear fall-out” was heading our way from the stricken nuclear reactors in Fukushima, in a catastrophe that would dwarf Chernobyl. Milk, spinach and water were said to be contaminated with “high levels” of “deadly radiation”, and residents as far away as California were panicked into buying iodine pills.

To misquote Michael Winner – calm down dears.

The truth is that many of the “reports” you read this month, even in normally reputable publications, have been utter tosh. Sensationalism, wild inaccuracies and scaremongering have been the norm.

So let’s put this into perspective; no one has died of radiation as a result of Japan’s nuclear crisis, and it’s highly unlikely anyone ever will.

Put that against the 9,523 killed and further 16,094 missing as a result of the earthquake and tsunami and it’s clear we have got our priorities here wrong.

You would have to eat the “poisoned” spinach for five years, and drink the milk for 12 months, to receive a dose of radiation equivalent to a single CT scan. But that won’t happen because radioactive iodine has a half life of about eight days.

You’d have to drink 52 gallons of “contaminated” water to reach the maximum annual radiation dose, which is itself a fraction any level proven to be harmful.

And as for that “toxic nuclear cloud” heading for Europe? When it arrives it will deliver a dose less than a billionth of natural background radiation.

In short the chances of anyone being significantly harmed as a result of this accident are small in Japan and entirely non-existent in Europe or the US.

But that hasn’t stopped irresponsible greens, and their cheerleaders in the media, from ghoulishly using the misfortunes of Japan to further their own political agenda to call for the abandonment of nuclear power.

If they get their way, the result will be either we burn more coal and gas, and produce more carbon dioxide, or the lights will go out.

There is no conceivable way that hideously expensive wind power, even with vast taxpayer-funded subsidies, will ever play more than a minor role in catering for our energy needs.

Nuclear power was given an exacting test in Japan – and emerged with flying colours.

Despite the worst earthquake and biggest tsunami in living memory, every single one of Japan’s 55 nuclear reactors shut down safely. No one has been killed by the reactors and there has been no leak of radiation that could seriously damage human health.

If nothing else can convince you that the future is nuclear, the events at Fukushima should.

A sorry plight

I can’t help feeling slightly sorry for Brian True-May, the producer of the Midsomer Murders television show, who is stepping down after sparking a race row.

He suggested that it “wouldn’t be an English village” if ethnic minorities were included the programme.

True-May’s big mistake was to conflate Englishness with whiteness in a way that simply doesn’t reflect realities anymore.

After all who could be more English than Rio Ferdinand, Baroness Warsi, Jessica Ennis or Sir Ben Kingsley?

But True-May has issued what reads like a sincere and chastened apology.

In the spirit of that great English virtue – tolerance – couldn’t he be allowed quietly to get on with his job?