Nuclear power raises issues of safety, of power and of management. Each is more complex and more nuanced than public debate acknowledges.

The most risky activities often have the fewest accidents. You are more vulnerable to a domestic accident than a plane crash. Sitting in a heavy metal box travelling at 500mph and 35,000 feet above the ground is so obviously unsafe that enormous efforts have been made to ensure that it is very safe indeed. In the same way, the all too apparent risk that a nuclear power station might turn into a nuclear bomb has been reduced to minuscule proportions through failsafe engineering, backup systems and tight regulations.