State Papers: Man who split the atom suggested coast for nuclear plant rather than Lough Neagh

Nuclear physicist John Cockcroft wrote to Prime Minister Basil Brooke in 1958 about proposals to site a nuclear station on Lough Neagh, according to declassified state papers.

Cockcroft was not happy with the proposal given the inland Lough was projected to become an important source of water for Belfast.

“This has made us considerably less happy about the choice of Lough Neagh for a nuclear power station site. I do not think that any radiological hazard would result from normal operation of the power station since discharges of weak radioactivity from cooling plant would be kept well below the level acceptable for drinking water.

"We have however to think of the possibility of an accident leading to over-heating of the reactor and some release of radioactive products...if in spite of all precautions a substantial release of radioactivity occurred as a result of an accident, pollution of the waters of the Lough might occur necessitating this source of drinking water being unavailable for several months. Fishing would also be interfered with,” he wrote.

The man who, with Waterford’s Ernest Walton received the 1951 Nobel Prize in Physics for splitting the atom in 1932, suggested the authorities should look for a coastal site.

"When I visited NI last May I saw a sea lough north of Belfast which appeared to have a power station sited on it...I would suggest therefore that a serious investigation be made of possible costal sites and that Lough Neagh should not be used."

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