THE nuclear crisis in Japan has prompted renewed calls to scrap plans for another power plant at Hinkley Point.

Campaigners claim the explosion at the 40-year-old Fukushima power plant shows nuclear energy is unsafe – but officials have reassured members of the public.

The scheme could also bring 5,000 jobs to the area but if a 30km exclusion zone – such as the one imposed at Fukushima – were ever in place around Hinkley Point, it would include Minehead and Taunton.

Debbie Richards, from South West Against Nuclear, said: “It’s about time people in the nuclear industry faced up to the facts about nuclear power – it is not safe and we do not need it.”

The nuclear industry worldwide is watching the Fukushima incident closely with the British government commissioning a ‘thorough report on the implications of the situation in Japan and the lessons to be learned.’

A spokesman for EDF Energy said the company welcomed the Government’s move.

He added that all EDF Energy’s UK nuclear power stations are protected against seismic and storm surge events, detailed in approved safety cases agreed with the regulator.

Somerset County Council leader Ken Maddock, who also leads a national group on nuclear development, said: “Lots of planning applications are about to be lodged right across the country, and we need to be able to answer the right and proper challenges from the public and pressure groups.”

Taunton Deane MP and Foreign Office Minister Jeremy Browne, who attended a Cabinet meeting on the matter on Tuesday, said: “The Government will look at any safety lessons, if any, which can be garnered from the Japanese experience.”

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