People at a book store react as the store's ceiling falls in Sendai, northern Japan Friday, March 11, 2011. Japan was struck by a magnitude-8.8 earthquake off its northeastern coast Friday, triggering a 13-foot (4-meter) tsunami that washed away cars and tore away buildings along the coast near the epicenter. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT, FOR COMMERCIAL USE ONLY IN NORTH AMERICA

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan reacts during an upper house budget committee session at parliament in Tokyo, Japan, Friday, March 11, 2011. Kan said earlier in the day he will not resign after acknowledging that his campaign office had unknowingly received illegal donations from a foreign supporter _ days after his foreign minister stepped down for a similar reason. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)

People at a book store react in Sendai, northern Japan as an earthquake hits Friday, March 11, 2011. Japan was struck by a magnitude-8.8 earthquake off its northeastern coast Friday, triggering a 13-foot (4-meter) tsunami that washed away cars and tore away buildings along the coast near the epicenter.

Hotel employees gather at the hotel's entrance in Tokyo, Japan as an earthquake hits Friday, March 11, 2011. Japan was struck by a magnitude-8.8 earthquake off its northeastern coast Friday, triggering a 13-foot (4-meter) tsunami that washed away cars and tore away buildings along the coast near the epicenter. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)

In this image fromJapan's NHK TV video footage, vehicles are washed away by tsunami in coastal area in eastern Japan after Japan was struck by a magnitude 8.9 earthquake off its northeastern coast Friday, March 11, 2011.

Houses are in flames while the Natori river is flooded over the surrounding area by tsunami tidal waves in Natori city, Miyagi Prefecture, northern Japan, March 11, 2011, after strong earthquakes hit the area

SAN FRANCISCO - MARCH 11: (L - R) Leighana Murphy and Ted Lanpher walk across a portion of a beach between tsunami surges on March 11, 2011 in Half Moon Bay, California. A tsunami warning for Northern California has been issued and a voluntary evacuation is in effect in Half Moon Bay. (Photo by Kim White/Getty Images)

A bride and groom from Japan walk in the lobby of the Sheration Waikiki Hotel, Friday, March 11, 2011 in Honolulu. A ferocious tsunami unleashed by Japan's biggest recorded earthquake slammed into its eastern coast Friday, killing hundreds of people as it carried away ships, cars and homes, and triggered widespread fires that burned out of control. Hours later, the waves washed ashore on Hawaii and the U.S. West coast, where evacuations were ordered from California to Washington but little damage was reported

In this image made from Japan's NHK television, a house is sticks out from scattered debris as the area is submerged in Minami Soma, Fukushima prefecture (state), Friday, March 11, 2011 after a ferocious tsunami unleashed by Japan's biggest recorded earthquake slammed into its eastern coasts

Houses are in flames while the Natori river is flooded over the surrounding area by tsunami tidal waves in Natori city, Miyagi Prefecture, northern Japan, March 11, 2011, after strong earthquakes hit the area

A car leans against a wire from an electric pole in Miyako, northeastern Japan, Saturday, March 12, 2011, one day after an 8.9-magnitude quake and the tsunami it spawned hit the country's northeastern coast

In this video image taken from NTV Japan via APTN, smoke rises from Unit 1 of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okumamachi, Fukushima prefecture, Japan, Saturday, March 12, 2011. Government spokesman Yukio Edano said the explosion destroyed the exterior walls of the building where the reactor is placed, but not the metal housing enveloping the nuclear reactor, however the government has ordered the evacuation of all people within a 12-miles radius of the plant

ALTERNATE CROP OF TOK890 OF MARCH 13, 2011 - Futaba Kosei Hospital patients are assisted by Japan Self Defense Force personnel as they disembark from a helicopter in the compound of Fukushima Gender Equality Centre in Nihonmatsu, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan, Sunday morning, March 13, 2011 after being evacuated from the hospital in Futaba town near the troubled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex. They might have been exposed to radiation while waiting for evacuation when an explosion of Unit 1 reactor of the complex blew off the top part of its walls on Saturday, one day after a strong earthquake and tsunami hit northeastern Japan. (AP Photo/The Yomiuri Shimbun, Daisuke Tomita) JAPAN OUT, CREDIT MANDATORY

SENDAI, JAPAN - MARCH 14: Local residents walk through an area damaged by a tsunami after a 9.0 magnitude strong earthquake struck on March 11 off the coast of north-eastern Japan, on March 14, 2011 in Sendai, Japan. The quake struck offshore at 2:46pm local time, triggering a tsunami wave of up to 10 metres which engulfed large parts of north-eastern Japan. The death toll is currently unknown, with fears that the current hundreds dead may well run into thousands. (Photo by Kiyoshi Ota/Getty Images)

SENDAI, JAPAN - MARCH 14: Members of the Ground Self-Defense Forces help a man evacuate the area when a warning of tsunami is issued after a 9.0 magnitude strong earthquake struck on March 11 off the coast of north-eastern Japan, on March 14, 2011 in Sendai, Japan. The quake struck offshore at 2:46pm local time, triggering a tsunami wave of up to 10 metres which engulfed large parts of north-eastern Japan. The death toll is currently unknown, with fears that the current hundreds dead may well run into thousands. (Photo by Kiyoshi Ota/Getty Images)

SENDAI, JAPAN - MARCH 14: A local resident rests as she evacuates an area after a 9.0 magnitude strong earthquake struck on March 11 off the coast of north-eastern Japan, on March 14, 2011 in Sendai, Japan. The quake struck offshore at 2:46pm local time, triggering a tsunami wave of up to 10 metres which engulfed large parts of north-eastern Japan. The death toll is currently unknown, with fears that the current hundreds dead may well run into thousands. (Photo by Kiyoshi Ota/Getty Images)

SENDAI, JAPAN - MARCH 14: Members of a rescue team climb into a house after a warning of tsunami is issued after a 9.0 magnitude strong earthquake struck on March 11 off the coast of north-eastern Japan, on March 14, 2011 in Sendai, Japan. The quake struck offshore at 2:46pm local time, triggering a tsunami wave of up to 10 metres which engulfed large parts of north-eastern Japan. The death toll is currently unknown, with fears that the current hundreds dead may well run into thousands. (Photo by Kiyoshi Ota/Getty Images)

SENDAI, JAPAN - MARCH 14: Members of the Ground Self-Defense Forces help a man evacuate the area when a warning of tsunami is issued after a 9.0 magnitude strong earthquake struck on March 11 off the coast of north-eastern Japan, on March 14, 2011 in Sendai, Japan. The quake struck offshore at 2:46pm local time, triggering a tsunami wave of up to 10 metres which engulfed large parts of north-eastern Japan. The death toll is currently unknown, with fears that the current hundreds dead may well run into thousands. (Photo by Kiyoshi Ota/Getty Images)

SENDAI, JAPAN - MARCH 14: A worker operates a power shovel to remove trees after a 9.0 magnitude strong earthquake struck on March 11 off the coast of north-eastern Japan, on March 14, 2011 in Sendai, Japan. The quake struck offshore at 2:46pm local time, triggering a tsunami wave of up to 10 metres which engulfed large parts of north-eastern Japan. The death toll is currently unknown, with fears that the current hundreds dead may well run into thousands. (Photo by Kiyoshi Ota/Getty Images)

SENDAI, JAPAN - MARCH 14: A local resident tries to approach a car left abandoned in the area damaged by tsunami after a 9.0 magnitude strong earthquake struck on March 11 off the coast of north-eastern Japan, on March 14, 2011 in Sendai, Japan. The quake struck offshore at 2:46pm local time, triggering a tsunami wave of up to 10 metres which engulfed large parts of north-eastern Japan. The death toll is currently unknown, with fears that the current hundreds dead may well run into thousands. (Photo by Kiyoshi Ota/Getty Images)

SHIROISHI, JAPAN - MARCH 13, 2011: (EDITORS NOTE: Image has been reviewed by U.S. Military prior to transmission.) In this handout image provided by U.S. Navy, sailors assigned to the Chargers of Helicopter Anti-submarine Squadron (HS-14) deliver 1,500 pounds of food on March 13, 2011 to residents of Shiroishi City in the Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. The citizens of Ebina City, Japan, donated the food, and HS-14 is providing humanitarian assistance in support of earthquake and tsunami relief operations in Japan as directed. An earthquake measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale has hit the northeast coast of Japan causing tsunami alerts throughout countries bordering the Pacific Ocean. (Photo by Oscar Sosa/U.S. Navy via Getty Images)

In this 1999 file photo, Unit 3 reactor of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is seen in Okumamachi, Fukushima Prefecture. Japan's chief cabinet secretary says a hydrogen explosion has occurred at Unit 3 Monday, March 14, 2011. The blast was similar to an earlier one at a different unit of the facility. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT, NO SALES IN CHINA, HONG KONG, JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA AND FRANCE

Gutted vehicles and the rubble is seen in Kesennuma, Miyagi prefecture, northern Japan, Sunday, March 13, 2011, two days after a powerful earthquake-triggered tsunami hit the country's east coast. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT, NO SALES IN CHINA, HONG KONG, JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA AND FRANCE

CORRECTS WHOLE CAPTION - Patients at a hospital wait to be evacuated without medicine and electricity in Otsuchi in Iwate Prefecture (state) Sunday, March 13, 2011, two days after a strong earthquake and tsunami hit northeastern Japan. (AP Photo/The Yomiuri Shimbun, Yasuhiro Takami) JAPAN OUT, CREDIT MANDATORY

Police officers from Hyogo Prefecture search missing persons in the rubble in Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture, northern Japan Monday, March 14, 2011 following Friday's massive earthquake and the ensuing tsunami. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT, NO SALES IN CHINA, HONG KONG, JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA AND FRANCE

This image made from Japan's NHK public television via Kyodo News shows the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant's Unit 3 after an explosion Monday morning, March 14, 2011, in Okumamachi, Fukushima prefecture, northeastern Japan. Japan's chief cabinet secretary said a hydrogen explosion has occurred at Unit 3. The blast was similar to an earlier one at a different unit of the facility. (AP Photo/NHK TV via Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT, NO SALES, TV OUT, EDITORIAL USE ONLY, NO SALE IN CHINA, HONG KONG, JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA AND FRANCE

A statue is all that remains of a house in the seaside town of Toyoma, northern Japan, Monday, March 14, 2011, three days after a giant quake and tsunami struck the country's northeastern coast. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

Young residents of the seaside town of Toyoma, northern Japan, walk amongst the debris around their homes Monday, March 14, 2011, three days after a giant quake and tsunami struck the country's northeastern coast. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

A car sits on top of a small building in a destroyed neighborhood in Sendai, Japan, on Sunday, March 13, 2011 after it was washed into the area by the tsunami that hit northeastern Japan. AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

A man watches a coastal area from a building where he took shelter in Tamura, Iwate, northern Japan as tsunami warning was issued Monday, March 14, 2011 following Friday's massive earthquake and the ensuing tsunami. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT, NO SALES IN CHINA, HONG KONG, JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA AND FRANCE

This Arpil 4, 2010 image released by GeoEye shows an area of Ishinomaki, Japan. An 8.9-magnitude earthquake struck Japan on March 11, 2011, causing a tsunami that devastated the region. (AP Photo/GeoEye) SEE NY231 FOR SIMILAR IMAGE AFTER EARTHQUAKE. MANDATORY CREDIT, NO SALES.

People put away cans containing beer and juice swept out from a beer factory in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, northern Japan, Sunday, March 13, 2011, two days after a powerful earthquake and tsunami hit the country's east coast. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT, NO SALES IN CHINA, HONG KONG, JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA AND FRANCE

No. 3 unit of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, is seen, 2nd from right, with unit 1 reactor, left, with its top part of walls blown off after Saturday's explosion seen in Okumamachi, Fukushima Prefecture (state) , northern Japan Monday, March 14, 2011. Japanese officials say they believe a hydrogen explosion has occurred at the nuclear plant, similar to an earlier one at a different unit in the facility. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT, NO SALES IN CHINA, HONG KONG, JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA AND FRANCE

People walk to receive water supply through a street with the rubble Monday March 14, 2011 in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, northern Japan following Friday's massive earthquake and the ensuing tsunami. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT, NO SALES IN CHINA, HONG KONG, JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA AND FRANCE

A parent and child react as they search for missing relatives through debris caused by Friday's massive earthquake and the ensuing tsunami, in Kamaishi, northern Japan Sunday, March 13, 2011. (AP Photo/Asahi Shimbun, Toshiyuki Hayashi) JAPAN OUT, NO SALES, MANDATORY CREDIT

This combo made from images provided by GeoEye shows an area of Natori, Japan on April 4, 2010, left, and March 12, 2011, after an 8.9-magnitude earthquake struck causing a tsunami that devastated the region. (AP Photo/GeoEye) MANDATORY CREDIT, NO SALES.

ALTERNATE CROP AND CAPTION ADDITION - A mother strokes the head of her dead daughter as she and her husband look at the body of their daughter they found in a courtesy vehicle of a driving school that's smashed by a tsunami at Yamamoto, northeastern Japan, on Saturday March 12, 2011, a day after a giant earthquake and tsunami struck the country's northeastern coast. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT, NO SALES IN CHINA, HONG KONG, JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA AND FRANCE

Residents of the seaside town of Yotsukura, northern Japan, inspect under their car as they clear debris from their homes Monday, March 14, 2011, three days after a giant quake and tsunami struck the country's northeastern coast. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

A man, with his face covered to protect against dust, looks out at the damage Monday, March 14, 2011, in Yotsukura, Japan, three days after a giant quake and tsunami struck the country's northeastern coast. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

A man holds his baby as they are scanned for levels of radiation in Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, Sunday, March 13, 2011. Friday's quake and tsunami damaged two nuclear reactors at a power plant in the prefecture, and at least one of them appeared to be going through a partial meltdown, raising fears of a radiation leak. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

Rubble is scattered across the wide areas of the town of Minami Sanriku, northeastern Japan, on Sunday March 13, 2011, two days after a powerful earthquake and tsunami hit the the country's northeastern coast. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) MANDATORY CREDIT, NO LICENSING ALLOWED IN CHINA, HONG KONG, JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA AND FRANCE

The No. 1 reactor of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, is seen at left, with its upper part of the walls blown off after an explosion in Okumamachi, Fukushima Prefecture (state), northeastern Japan, Saturday, March 12, 2011. (AP Photo/Mainichi Shimbun, Taichi Kaizuka) JAPAN OUT NO SALES ONLINE OUT MANDATORY CREDIT

A helicopter from fire department searches over the debris of a destroyed house Monday, March 14, 2011 in Yamamoto, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan following Friday's massive earthquake and the ensuing tsunami. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT, NO SALES IN CHINA, HONG KONG, JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA AND FRANCE

In this March 12, 2011 photo provided by the U.S. Navy, an SH-60B helicopter assigned to the Chargers of Helicopter Antisubmarine Squadron (HS) 14 from Naval Air Facility Atsugi flies over the city of Sendai, Japan to deliver more than 1,500 pounds of food to survivors of an 8.9 magnitude earthquake and a tsunami. The citizens of Ebina City, Japan, donated the food, and HS-14 is supporting earthquake and tsunami relief operations in Japan as directed. (AP Photo/U.S. Navy)

This Nov. 15, 2009 photo provided by GeoEye shows the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex in Japan. An 8.9-magnitude earthquake struck Japan on March 11, 2011, causing a tsunami that devastated the region. Four nuclear plants in northeastern Japan have reported damage, but the danger Monday appeared to be greatest at the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex, where one explosion occurred over the weekend and a second was feared. (AP Photo/GeoEye) MANDATORY CREDIT, NO SALES

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano speaks during a press conference about planned blackouts in Tokyo and other cities, and the second hydrogen explosion at Dai-ichi nuclear plant, in Tokyo Monday, March 14, 2011. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT, NO SALES IN CHINA, HONG KONG, JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA AND FRANCE

Damaged platforms for bullet trains are seen in Sendai, northern Japan Monday, March 14, 2011 following Friday's massive earthquake and the ensuing tsunami. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT, NO SALES IN CHINA, HONG KONG, JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA AND FRANCE

Workers remove the rubble in the earthquake and flood het area Monday, March 14, 2011 in Kesennuma, northern Japan following Friday's massive earthquake and the ensuing tsunami. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT, NO SALES IN CHINA, HONG KONG, JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA AND FRANCE

Upon hearing another tsunami warning, a father tries to flee for safety with his just reunited four-month-old baby girl who was spotted by Japan's Self-Defense Force member in the rubble of tsunami-torn Ishinomaki Monday, March 14, 2011, three days after a powerful earthquake-triggered tsunami hit northeast Japan.

Four atomic reactors in dire trouble at once, three threatening meltdown from overheating, and a fourth hit by a fire in its storage pond for radioactive spent fuel.

All day yesterday, dire reports continued to circulate about the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, faced with disaster after Japan's tsunami knocked out its cooling systems. Some turned out to be false: for example, a rumour, disseminated by text message, that radiation from the plant had been spreading across Asia.

Others were true: that radiation at about 20 times normal levels had been detected in Tokyo; that Chinese airlines had cancelled flights to the Japanese capital; that Austria had moved it embassy from Tokyo to Osaka; that a 24-hour general store in Tokyo's Roppongi district had sold out of radios, torches, candles and sleeping bags.

But perhaps the most alarming thing was that although Naoto Kan, Japan's Prime Minister, once again appealed for calm, there are many – in Japan and beyond – who are no longer prepared to be reassured.

The scale of the alarm is the remarkable thing: how it has gone round the world (Angela Merkel has imposed a moratorium on nuclear energy; in France, there are calls for a referendum); how it's even displaced the terrible story of Japan's tsunami itself from the front-page headlines. But then, public alarm about nuclear safety, as the Fukushima emergency proves, is very easy to raise – and, as the Japanese authorities are now discovering, very hard to calm.

The reason is an industry which from its inception, more than half a century ago, has taken secrecy to be its watchword; and once that happens, cover-ups and downright lies often follow close behind. The sense of crisis surrounding Japan's stricken nuclear reactors is exacerbated a hundredfold by the fact that, in an emergency, public trust in the promoters of atomic power is virtually non-existent. On too many occasions in Britain, in America, in Russia, in Japan – pick your country – people have not been told the truth (and have frequently been told nothing at all) about nuclear misadventures.

To understand the mania for secrecy, we have to go back to nuclear power's origins. This was not a technology dreamt up as a replacement for coal-fired power stations; this is a military technology, conceived in a life-or-death struggle, which has been modified for civilian purposes. At its heart is the nuclear chain reaction, the self-sustaining atom-splitting process ("fission") which occurs when enough highly radioactive material is brought together, and which produces other radioactive elements ("fission products"), and a release of energy.

When it was first achieved by the physicists Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilard, in an atomic "pile" built in a squash court of the University of Chicago in December 1942, it merely produced heat; but all those involved understood that if it could be speeded up, it would produce the biggest explosive power ever known. And so was born the Manhattan Project, the US undertaking to build the atom bomb which was, while it lasted, history's biggest secret.

Secrecy came with nuclear energy, like a birthmark, and, indeed, for 10 years after the first A-bomb was dropped on Hiroshima in August 1945, it remained a covert military technology, although first the Russians, and then the British, followed the Americans in developing it. Britain built a pair of atomic reactors at Windscale on the Cumbrian coast, which produced (as a fission product) plutonium, the material used in the first British nuclear weapon. That was exploded off the coast of Australia in 1952. And it was in one of these reactors that the world's first really serious nuclear accident occurred: the Windscale fire of October 1957. The reactor's core, made of graphite, caught light, melted and burned substantial amounts of the uranium fuel, and released large amounts of radioactivity. It was the most serious nuclear calamity until Chernobyl nearly 30 years later, but the British government did all it could to minimise its significance, trying at first to keep it a complete secret (the local fire brigade was not notified for 24 hours) and keeping the official report confidential until 1988.

It was to be the first of many such nuclear alarms and cover-ups at Windscale. In 1976, for example, the secrecy surrounding a major leak of radioactive water infuriated the then Technology Minister, Tony Benn, who supported nuclear power, when he learnt of it. But similar cover-ups were happening all around the world.

At the US atomic weapons plant at Rocky Flats, Colorado, there were numerous mishaps involving radioactive material which were kept secret over four decades, from the 1950s to the 1980s. In Russia, the province of Chelyabinsk, just east of the Urals, housed a major atomic weapons complex, which was the site of three major nuclear disasters: radioactive waste dumping and the explosion of a waste containment unit in the 1950s, and a vast escape of radioactive dust in 1967. It is estimated that about half a million people in the region were irradiated in one or more of the incidents, exposing them to as much as 20 times the radiation suffered by the Chernobyl victims. None of which, of course, was disclosed at the time. Chelyabinsk is sometimes referred to now as "the most polluted place on the planet".

When we turn to Japan, we find an identical culture of nuclear cover-up and lies. Of particular concern has been the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), Asia's biggest utility, which just happens to be the owner and operator of the stricken reactors at Fukushima.

Tepco has a truly rotten record in telling the truth. In 2002, its chairman and a group of senior executives had to resign after the Japanese government disclosed they had covered up a large series of cracks and other damage to reactors, and in 2006 the company admitted it had been falsifying data about coolant materials in its plants over a long period.

Last night it was reported that the International Atomic Energy Agency warned Japan more than two years ago that strong earthquakes would pose "serious problems", according to a Wikileaks US embassy cable published by The Daily Telegraph.

Even Chernobyl, the world's most publicised nuclear accident, was at first hidden from the world by what was then the Soviet Union, and might have remained hidden had its plume of escaping radioactivity not been detected by scientists in Sweden.

So why do they do it? Why does the instinct to hide everything persist, even now, when the major role of nuclear energy has decisively shifted from the military to the civil sector? Perhaps it is because there is an instinctive and indeed understandable fear among the public about nuclear energy itself, about this technology which, once its splits its atoms, releases deadly forces.

The nuclear industry is terrified of losing public support, for the simple reason that it has always needed public money to fund it. It is not, even now, a sector which can stand on its own two feet economically. So when it finds it has a problem, its first reaction is to hide it, and its second reaction is to tell lies about it. But the truth comes out in the end, and then the public trusts the industry even less than it might have done, had it admitted the problem.

It doesn't have to be like this. A quarter of a century ago, Britain's nuclear industry acquired a leader who for a few years transformed its public image: Christopher Harding. He was an open and honest man who thought that the paranoia and secrecy surrounding nuclear power should be swept away.

When he became chairman of British Nuclear Fuels, which ran the Windscale plant, he decided on a new order of things. He renamed it Sellafield, and, to general astonishment, decreed that instead of sullenly turning its back to the public, it should welcome them with open arms. He did the unthinkable: he opened a visitor centre!

Harding died young in 1999, but he was, in his lifetime an exceptional man: not only for his charm and his personal kindness – he was revered by Sellafield employees – but for his vision of a nuclear industry which would be better off dealing with its problems through transparency and honesty, rather than through obfuscation and deceit. But he was, unfortunately, the exception who proved the rule.

The rest of the nuclear industry has been dissembling for so long, and caught out in its lies so often, that the chance for trust may have passed. Even if, as I suspect, the Japanese government is trying to be reasonably up front about the problems at Fukushima, it is by no means certain that anything it says about the nuclear part of their nation's catastrophe will be believed.

Belfast Telegraph