Madam, - May I assure Caroline Molloy (January 15th) that those who design, build and operate nuclear power plants are not afraid to live close to them.
Thousands, if not tens of thousands, of such people in western Europe alone do so today and I expect that they and their families will be happy to continue to live where they are when replacement reactors are built on the same sites in the years to come.
In my early career as a nuclear engineer I and my colleagues not only lived close to nuclear reactors but frequently, in the line of duty as reactor operators "slept with them". We knew this was considerably safer than driving anywhere in western Europe. - Yours, etc,
FRANK TURVEY, Greystones, Co Wicklow.