Risks of serious nuclear incident affecting the islands ‘very small’

It was carried out by the UK Health Security Agency on behalf of the Guernsey and Jersey governments to ensure they were ready for all potential incidents.

The review looked at the worst case scenario of a nuclear incident involving radioactive waste dumped in the Hurd Deep as well as the risks from incidents at the nuclear sites on the Cotentin Peninsula – the Orano La Hague nuclear fuel reprocessing site, Flamanville nuclear power station and nuclear submarines at the Cherbourg dock yards.

It also considered the potential risk from nuclear materials being carried by ships in waters around the islands.

Director of public health Dr Nicola Brink said she was reassured by the report confirming that there was a very small risk of a nuclear incident.

This was the first time the issue had been looked at since 1997 and was part of the normal cycle of risk assessment, she said.

Even if one of the worst situations arose, the islands’ normal weather patterns would likely lead to a minimal risk to public health, she said.

Islanders are thought to be exposed to slightly higher levels of natural radiation than people in the UK owing to the radon gas emitted by granite.

People are also exposed to radiation from naturally occurring materials in the ground entering the food chain and every time they have an x-ray.

A hypothetical release of a very large amount of radioactive material at the nuclear sites on the Cotentin Peninsula was used as an example but the report said that this was ‘extremely unlikely given the well-established and robust safety procedures in place’.

Civil servants from Guernsey and Jersey were accompanied by French authorities on visits to some of the sites involved.

The review examined more than 850 examples of weather as part of its research into the likely impact of any incident.

Among the review’s recommendations was for the islands to considering stockpiling iodine for use in the unlikely event of radioactive material being released into the air.

But Guernsey and Jersey’s Radiation Advisory Groups recommended against this move. Instead they agreed that the focus should be on sheltering in place should such an incident occur.

It was found that iodine tablets would be useful in only one of the scenarios looked at by the review (an incident at Flamanville) as well as there being ‘significant practical difficulties’ in making sure tablets could be distributed to people at the right time.

Dr Brink said that emergency plans would be updated to take into account the report’s recommendations. ‘But the key public health advice would, should such an unlikely event occur, be for the community to seek shelter as a priority,’ she said.