Documents reveal fears over nuclear power stations
Documents reveal fears over nuclear power stations
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Wednesday, 05, Jul 2006 10:23
Crucial concerns about the safety of the reactor cores in the UK's nuclear power stations have led an independent nuclear engineer to call for them to be immediately shut down.
Documents written by the government's nuclear inspectors and passed between the Nuclear Safety Directorate (NSD) and British Energy (BE), which were revealed to environmental campaigners Greenpeace via the Freedom of Information Act, reveal that the bricks which make up the reactor cores of the UK's advanced gas-cooled reactors (AGRs) are cracked.
The cracks are significant in that the graphite bricks help control nuclear reaction and also have channels running through them which enable key safety mechanisms, such as the entry of rods designed to shut down the reactor in an emergency.
As such the cracked bricks could cause safety mechanisms to fail in the event of a severe event, potentially leading to a radiological material release.
The findings come just days before the energy review is expected to report its conclusions, with the prime minister Tony Blair likely to give the go-ahead to the increased use of nuclear power in meeting the nation's energy needs.
Speaking yesterday, Mr Blair said: "It's very hard to see where we are going to get…more energy supplies without having nuclear power."
In a report conducted in April this year on the Hinkley Point AGR nuclear power station in Somerset, the NSD warned that there "is increased likelihood of increased risk should we agree to continued operation".
The NSD also criticised BE's level of knowledge regarding why the cores are cracked, how great the damage is and how much more cracking the core can sustain before it falls below the minimum safety required for a nuclear reactor.
John Large, an independent nuclear engineer who analysed the documents on behalf of Greenpeace, said that there are "considerable uncertainties" about the safety of the cores.
"In my view, that reactor safety may be at a cliff edge to a very serious accident and release of radioactivity," he said.
"In view of the increased risk presented by the continued operation of these nuclear plants, the reactors should be immediately shut down."
Stephen Tindale, executive director of Greenpeace, said: "[The documents] show the incompetence of the government and BE who have known about these significant cracks yet have refused to do anything about it."
There are currently 14 AGRs in the UK across sites at Dungeness, Hartlepool, Heysham, Hinkley Point, Hunterston and Torness.