LEN Green has worked in the nuclear industry for many years.A former engineer at Sizewell A, he was part of the team responsible for building Sizewell B and is now a freelance consultant to the industry - and has helped with the clear up after the Chernobyl disaster in The Ukraine.

LEN Green has worked in the nuclear industry for many years.

A former engineer at Sizewell A, he was part of the team responsible for building Sizewell B and is now a freelance consultant to the industry - and has helped with the clear up after the Chernobyl disaster in The Ukraine.

He was not surprised to hear that a plane had managed to get near the power stations.

"When I was there, we had a 2,000-foot exclusion zone above the power stations and planes had to stay 400 yards away from the perimeter fence.

"Basically you were fine as long as you stayed over the sea," he said.

"It is possible that the pilot might be reported to the Civil Aviation Authority after this incident," he added.

Mr Green said Sizewell B had been built to withstand the impact of an aircraft.

"The shell was tested and tested. The material use for the main reactor housing was tested by flying a remote-controlled Phantom jet into it, and it remained intact," he said.

"There are emergency plans in place to deal with any such eventuality as this," he added.

The chairman of the Central Electricity Generating Board when Sizewell B was being built was Lord Walter Marshall, a keen advocate of nuclear power.

"Lord Marshall once said that if terrorists were going to target anything, it would be better to go for a nuclear power station because they'd kill fewer people there than if they blew up Marks and Spencer," said Mr Green.

"That was a very arrogant comment, but the point is that there are emergency plans in place for all eventualities, no matter what happens," he said.