no controls were operating, what did the authorities do? Did they evacuate the workers in the plant? Did they warn the local population of the dangers and try to evacuate them rapidly from the area? Like hell they did. They set up a strict wall of secrecy. They clearly decided that risking the lives of thousands was more important than giving political ammunition to the mass anti-nuclear movement in France which has been fighting tooth-and-nail to reverse the government's plans to build another 40 reactors against the plans to cunt inen plant at Plogoff, in Brittany, only à few weeks earlier, obviously persuaded them that discretion was the better part of valour.
Have the near-accidents at Harrisberg or Cherbourg persuaded the Thatcher government to rethink its nuclear programme for Britain? Not on your life. Only last month, they announced the go-ahead of a 10-year expansion of these nuclear death-traps at a cost of over 1 billion pounds a year.
These plans have been given the green light despite the claim by the CEGB (Central Electricity Generating Board) that it will be hard-pressed to meet its government-imposed cash limits this year.
Moreover, the financing of these potential time-bombs is being sought through massive cuts in health, education and housing. While Thatcher can find the money to build Harrisberg-type reactors all over the country, hospitals and schools are closing down through "In case of emergency, repeat after me: Our father.... lack of funds.
REASON The obvious question is - why is the government so intent on rushing into a nuclear programme whose threat to health and safety has become increasingly obvious over the years?
The answer is not too hard to find. Behind Thatcher stands a powerful industrial lobby intent on the massive profits to be had out of a nuclear programme. Arnold Weinstock's GEC, for exNuclear Corporation.
As instability in the Middle East - and massive increases in OPEC prices - make oil an increasingly unstable energy source, livest ments are more and more being poured into the nuclear industry. What do health and safety matter when profit is at stake?
REACTION Unfortunately, far from challenging this gamble with death, both the previous Labour government and the TUC have given it their stamp of approval. It was, atter all, Energy Secretary Tony Benn who pioneered the nuclear energy programme and his TUC allies wh:? backed him up.
Apart from demanding that "safety precautions should be looked at more closely, the TUC has publically announced that it sees nuclear power as a major factor in promoting economic growth and providing extra jobs.
Such an attitude has a callous, almost ostrich-like disregard tor the safety of union members. The
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NUCLEAR POWER PLANT