‘Radiation is also playing an important new role in sterilization. Peaches on the food shelves of South African supermarkets are being given small doses of gamma rays. These kill the bacteria and increase the shelf-life of the peaches by ten times. The World Health Organization estimates that thirty per cent of all the food in the world is not eaten because it has gone off before it ever reaches a table. The life of milk can be prolonged by doses of radiation; salmonella in chickens can be killed off without affecting the flavour; and these rays leave no toxic residue whatsoever.’

The thought of eating gamma-ray blasted chickens, and of South Africans not having to hurry over their purchase of peaches did not leave any visible marks of excitement on the faces of the seven hundred.

Yeodall announced that the lecture was over, and that question time had now begun. As an insurance policy against the length of his grilling, he informed his audience that the commencement of lunch awaited the conclusion of the questions.

From the battery of hands that shot into the air, lunch looked in distinct danger of becoming supper. A woman with a strong Australian accent spoke. ‘Sir, what in your opinion is the worst kind of an accident that could happen in a nuclear power station?’

‘There is very little room for accidents in the operation here; as I told you, we have three automatic shut-down systems, all independent of one another. We’ve fed every kind of accident possible, and every kind of sabotage possible, into the simulators, and we are totally confident in the safety systems here. If we weren’t, we wouldn’t work here; I’m sure I wouldn’t. We have over one thousand people working here, and I don’t think any of them would be here if they were worried. In dangerous jobs, people get paid danger money. Nobody gets paid danger money here. Does that answer your question?’

‘No, sir, it doesn’t; my concern is not whether an accident could happen – it is what sort of accident could happen. What is the worst sort of accident that could happen?’

‘The worst accident that could happen here is if one of the steam pipes were to fracture; but in the event of that happening, the valves to the vacuum building would open and the steam would be sucked straight in there.’

The science editor of The Times stood up. ‘You say that an accident could not happen, and yet in 1979 there was a very serious accident in a power station at Three Mile Island in the United States, with the same type of reactor as this. Why could this not happen again, over here?’