SIR — Perhaps the best lesson we can learn from the nuclear disaster in Japan is that when a natural disaster - or collapse due to human error - affects a nuclear power station, you cannot just lock it up and walk away.
It takes time to slow down and stop the nuclear reaction, and years after that to decommission the plant.
Even if a total meltdown is avoided in Japan, several workers have already been killed and a large amount of radiation has escaped into the atmosphere, making local residents more likely to get cancer.
People's lives have been disrupted. They have had to leave their homes and they do not know when they will be able to return.
We here in West Somerset should take note. We do not live in an earthquake-prone region but we are very likely to experience rising tide levels, and who knows what other effects of climate change may occur in the future.
So is it really wise to not only build new nuclear power stations here but also to store on site - for at least one hundred years and probably longer - the resulting radioactive nuclear waste, which can take thousands of years to decay to safe levels?
We ourselves may benefit from the electricity produced during the brief lifetime of a nuclear power station, and EDF may condescend to throw us a few sweeteners such as a new roundabout or housing, but our descendants will be left with an unproductive and dangerous legacy.
And remember, too, the millions of pounds of tax-payers' money already needed to pay for the decommissioning and protection of these white elephants (£1 billion in 2010-11), that has to be found regardless of other important obligations. No cuts possible there!
Nuclear power already accounts for 60 per cent of the Department of Energy's budget. No wonder there is so little money left for renewable energy projects in this area such as using the tides in the Severn estuary or subsidising solar energy plants.
Is it fair to leave such a long-lasting nuclear legacy to the future inhabitants of West Somerset? Is it ethical? Is it even sensible?
EDF do not even have an approved safety plan for their proposed design yet, and the way their other nuclear projects with the same design in France and Finland are running into trouble makes you wonder if they will ever get one.
If you agree with me that the last thing we want in West Somerset is another nuclear power station, there is still time to make your objections to this project known to Chris Huhne at the Department of Energy.
Sue Lloyd,
Quay Street,