Report concludes Britain's nuclear industry is safe

The report, published by Mike Weightman, chief inspector of nuclear installations, concludes, however, that lessons learnt from Fukushima can be employed in the UK to make its nuclear industry even safer.

In the report, Weightman, who is also executive head of the Office for Nuclear Regulation, points to government, industry and regulators to review 38 areas where he believes lessons can be learned in the UK from the nuclear crisis in Japan.

These include reliance on off-site infrastructure such as the electrical grid supply in extreme events, emergency-response arrangements, layout of plant, risks associated with flooding, planning controls around nuclear facilities and prioritising safety reviews.

The report, requested by the UK government, was published in interim form on 18 May. Since then, Dr Weightman has drawn on national and international expert opinion, and led a fact-finding mission to Japan in June — including a visit to the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant — to compile a thorough analysis of the evidence that has emerged to date.