Leading Article: Why Thorp issues must go public

HIGH IN the concrete awfulness of the Department of the Environment, John Selwyn Gummer is wrestling with his conscience. Together with Gillian Shephard, the Agriculture Secretary, he has to decide whether to give the go-ahead to the Thorp reprocessing plant. The issues at stake are immense, enough to trouble a man with much more stunted moral sensitivities.

Unfortunately, Mr Gummer's is a private travail. It is 16 years since these issues were weighed in public, at the 100-day-long Windscale inquiry. The inquiry's report, which allowed the pounds 2.8bn plant to be built, was controversial then: it is entirely discredited now. Thorp was approved to extract plutonium and uranium for re-use in fast-breeder reactors, and to make it easier to dispose of nuclear waste. But fast-breeders have been abandoned, the world is awash with unwanted plutonium and uranium, and the Government's own advisers say there is no need for Thorp.

There are arguments for the plant. It would provide much-needed employment in West Cumbria and pile up a lot of Japanese yen to assist the balance of payments. But it will also raise electricity prices, increase pollution (causing, over a long time, hundreds of extra deaths in the world), and greatly increase the risk of the spread of nuclear weapons.

By law and custom, ministers must establish that the benefits outweigh the perils. This is not being seen to be done. Even the economic study that, we are assured, shows Thorp to be viable is being kept secret. The honest and honourable course for ministers would be to hold another public inquiry so that the arguments can be aired and weighed openly.

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