Sir, You are right to highlight the security issues in the proposals for the Chinese to design and construct nuclear power stations in the UK (Oct 16). Given the very long life of such stations, far longer than the waxing and waning of relationships between countries with markedly different polities, it is a near certainty that the Chinese will take the precaution, as they see it, of inserting “backdoors” into the software to allow external manipulation of station operation.
If the proposals are to proceed, our nuclear inspectorate will be challenged as never before, and will have to protect against possibly undetectable deliberate malfunction design in the software. Whatever the circumstances, we need to ensure that the reactors can always be shut down safely and the residual heat extracted, unlike Fukushima Daiichi.
We also need to consider the possibility that the stations could be forced out of operation for long periods or even permanently.
Brian Parker
Former commissioning physicist for Hinkley Point A, Sizewell A and Wylfa nuclear power stations