The cloud of radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl disaster dissipated fairly quickly, but the cloud of public mistrust that hangs over the nuclear industry has yet to disappear. The British government wants to build new nuclear power stations. That is the right choice but, unless public policy goes hand in hand with some public persuasion, it will not get very far.

Nuclear power was the centrepiece of the energy policy paper the government published last week. Nuclear technology helps address the twin concerns of energy independence and climate change. Uranium is mined abroad and the process produces some carbon dioxide, but the quantities involved are small relative to importing and burning fossil fuels.