‘The result of a number of malfunctions and human errors at Three Mile Island was that a large bubble of hydrogen gas built up inside the containment and they had no way of getting rid of it – they had no vacuum chamber into which they could syphon it. We have such a chamber, so even if we had a similar set of initial problems as Three Mile Island, which is unlikely, there would be no danger.’

A tall black reporter stood up. ‘What would be the result of a terrorist organization either blowing up this power station, or getting their hands on the uranium that is used here and using it themselves to make nuclear bombs?’

‘To answer the first part of your question: there are an enormous number of buildings that make up this complex. It would take a mammoth amount of explosive just to blow up the containment, let alone the entire complex. In any event, the terrorists wouldn’t be achieving much: if they wanted to knock out the supply of electricity, it would be much more sensible merely to blow up the power cables.

‘To answer the second part: the uranium that is used here would not be of much use to terrorists in the making of nuclear explosives. The level of enrichment is very low, so if they did succeed in stealing some, it would have to go through an enrichment process – for which they would need access to an enrichment plant. There are very few of these in the world, and they are very strictly controlled. But in any case, if terrorists wanted to get their hands on uranium, they wouldn’t bother trying to steal it from here – the place is much too well guarded – it would be far easier to steal it while it was in transit.’

An English reporter stood up and spoke with a high-pitched, snide North Country accent. ‘What I would like to know is what would happen if, just supposing, somehow, radioactive steam did escape out of the containment – you know, let’s say the valves to the vacuum building jammed and the steam got out into the air. What would happen?’

Douglas Yeodall looked twitchy. ‘Well – er – well, if that happened, you’d surely get a lot of nasty stuff in the air – precisely what would happen would depend upon which way the wind was blowing. If the wind was blowing northwesterly at the time, well, that stuff is going to head straight towards Huntspill, and there would be a major emergency. We’d either have to evacuate the town – there is an evacuation plan which the townspeople know about – or if it wasn’t too serious, we’d make them all stay indoors and keep their windows shut. But this couldn’t happen.’

The English reporter spoke again. ‘What if the wind were blowing in a different direction?’

‘Well, then the people of Huntspill would be fine, there’d be no real problem then.’