If ever there was a reason to stop the proposed Hinkley Point nuclear power station – just 15 miles from the South Wales coast and the capital – it is the threatened meltdown of Japan's nuclear power plants crippled after the earthquake and tsunami. If these nuclear plants get out of control, it will threaten the lives of millions of people in a thousand mile radius. Even today, many farmers in Wales cannot market their livestock because of radiation contamination from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster 25 years ago.
Wales is not immune to seismic activity; tremors have been recorded here and elsewhere in Britain – and we do not build our nuclear plants to the high structural standards of Japan. An additional hazard is the threat posed by global warming, as sea levels rise around our island. Nor have we found a solution to the problem of dealing with a rising mountain of nuclear waste from power plants.
My heart goes out to the long suffering people of Japan – who still endure the effects of the world's first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. In the coming weeks, I will be helping to raise earthquake relief for Japanese victims of the tsunami; but more importantly, we will be campaigning vigorously to stop the insane march towards the next potential nuclear catastrophe at Hinkley Point or one of the other nuclear sites in Britain.