Papers released from secret governement archives revealed that in 1980 government scientists were told to calculate the exact chances of a Brit being killed by a falling asteroid.
The study was an attempt to persuade the public that nuclear power was safe, and that there were plenty of other things that were statistically more lethal than a neighbourhood reactor.
After much consideration, the men in white coats calculated that that one member of the public would be killed by an asteroid every 7,000 years.
