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Energy Secretary Chris Huhne voiced concerns following news that nuclear reactors in Japan were leaking radiation, but insisted that British nuclear power stations are safe.

The impact of the earthquake and the tsunami triggered three explosions at the Fukushima nuclear plant and there are reports that radioactive elements are leaking into the surrounding areas.

Yesterday, Huhne who was formally a nuclear sceptic, asked the chief nuclear inspector to compile a report on the implications of the disaster for the UK nuclear industry, said he was unwilling to pre-judge the outcome until the facts were known.

Huhne declined to give assurances that the report’s conclusions will not add to costs and delays. He said: “I’m aware of the pressure to rush to judgement. For that reason I’ve decided to establish the facts first.”

Speaking to the energy and climate change select committee, Huhne said it was essential to understand the implications for Britain's existing and planned reactors of the Japanese crisis in which a major earthquake and ensuing tsunami threatened possible meltdowns.

"I want to make sure that we are absolutely looking at the Japanese experience and applying all of the lessons that we need and can apply because safety is our number one concern," he said.

He added "Does that mean I am going to be a complacent and say we have no lessons to be learned from Japan? No. Although obviously there are major differences between our situation and the Japanese situation, both in terms of luckily not being in an earthquake zone and not suffering the secondary consequences of the tsunami, there may be parallels in how robust our back-up systems can be – for example, when it comes to the diesel generating electricity powering our cooling systems. We have to be open-minded about that and make sure we are learning the lessons."

Mr Huhne also accused other European governments of "rushing to judgements" over the safety of nuclear power in the wake of the Japan crisis; Germany recently announced that it would close down seven of its 17 nuclear reactors.
However, MPs have called for the government to look again at its plans to embrace nuclear power following the problems in Japan. Labour's Paul Flynn talked of a "rush to go nuclear" and the SNP's Mike Weir said there should be a "pause for thought" over the issue.
Steve Campbell from Greenpeace said: "Japan's nuclear plants were built with the latest technology, specifically to withstand natural disasters, yet we still face potential meltdown."

There are currently 19 nuclear power plants operating in the UK, with plans to increase their numbers by 2025 to meet the country's growing energy needs.