ANTI-NUCLEAR campaigners have called for Hinkley Point C to be scrapped following this week's disaster in Japan.

As the Weekly News went to press, there had been three blasts in nuclear power stations in Japan following the massive earthquake which triggered a tsunami.

On Monday morning, protesters from South West Against Nuclear descended on the Bridgwater offices of EDF Energy, the firm behind Hinkley C.

Crispin Aubrey, spokesman for another campaign group, Stop Hinkley, said: “The events in Japan provide yet more evidence that nuclear power is unsafe. We should immediately shelve plans for any new reactors in this country, including the Hinkley C proposal.”

Burnham and Highbridge MP Tessa Munt said a tsunami had struck Somerset in 1607, and urged the Government to exercise caution.

She said: “The tsunami in Somerset does not compare with the tragedy in Japan in any way but we should recognise that there are risks and the Government really needs to assess them.”

Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne said the Government was taking the incident in Japan “extremely seriously” and called on Chief Nuclear Inspector Dr Mike Weightman to compile a report on the situation in Japan to see if any lessons needed to be learned.

EDF Energy said: “Although we have no reason to expect a similar scale of seismic activity in the UK, all EDF Energy's nuclear power stations are protected against the effects of seismic events.”