from Sunday Herald, 04 March 2007
More than 30 safety incidents were investigated at Torness nuclear power station in 2005, sparking fears about the risks and reliability of the East Lothian plant.
The incidents included four emergency shutdowns, damaged or faulty safety equipment and a "transformer fire". According to experts, some of the events had the potential to cause a radiation leak.
A list of 33 incidents at Torness was released to the LibDem MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed, Alan Beith, last week. It coincides with a prolonged shutdown of Scotland's other nuclear power station at Hunterston in North Ayrshire due to boiler defects.
"It's worrying," Beith told the Sunday Herald. "You want the incidents to be reported and not covered up, but many people will be surprised to discovered that there were so many."
One-line descriptions of the incidents mentioned "loose wire", "loss of auto control", and "fuel non-conformances". Seven referred to problems with the large industrial doors that are meant to contain radioactivity released by an accident.
According to the independent nuclear engineer, John Large, some of the incidents could have been serious. If undetected, they might have caused injury to workers or, in the worst circumstances, triggered a radiation release, he claimed.
Large stressed, though, that it was difficult to tell because so little detail had been provided. "It really is insulting to give a senior MP a list like this that you can't interpret," he said.
The list was provided by the UK trade and industry minister, Margaret Hodge, in response to a parliamentary question from Beith. It recorded all the incidents reported by Torness and investigated by the government's Nuclear Installations Inspectorate during 2005.
Dr David Lowry, an environmental policy consultant and nuclear author, was "shocked" at the high number of incidents. He pointed out that the nuclear inspectorate was over-stretched, and had failed to spot a recent accident at the Sellafield nuclear plant in Cumbria for eight months.
This undermined the government's plans for a new programme of nuclear power stations, Lowry said. "Any plans to expand nuclear energy in the UK would be sheer recklessness when the nuclear safety regulator is unable to do its job properly."
The point was echoed by Duncan McLaren, the chief executive of Friends of the Earth Scotland. "The story of nuclear power is littered with thousands of examples of tiny mistakes and human error," he said.
"History teaches us that all it requires is just one of these many mishaps to take place in the wrong place at the wrong time to lead to something much more catastrophic."
But the company that runs Torness, British Energy, insisted that the incidents were all minor. "As a nuclear operator aiming for high standards of safety, we have an open and transparent reporting culture," said a company spokeswoman.
"Minor defects and incidents are identified and rectified. This is part of an ongoing drive to ensure continuous improvement and to maintain excellence in the safe and reliable generation of electricity."
British Energy's other nuclear station at Hunterston has suffered major problems because of defects discovered last year in its boiler tubes. One reactor has been closed down for over seven months, the other for over four months, and neither are expected to restart before April.
In 2002 British Energy was bailed out by the government after a financial crisis threatened bankruptcy. The continuing costs of the bail-out have recently forced multi-million pound cuts in the budgets for scientific research.
According to the Department of Trade and Industry in London the "liabilities" from the British Energy bail-out amounted to £200 million a year for ten years. This was one of the reasons why £68 million had been clawed back from eight science research councils.
The revelation has been seized on by anti-nuclear campaigners like McLaren. "This cut is a glimpse into the future if this government pushes through plans for a new generation of nuclear power plants," he said.
"The nuclear industry has always relied on taxpayers' money to prop it up. And it will be the same again in the future unless politicians stop the latest push to foist nuclear power on the public."
Read an earlier story on safety incidents at Torness and Hunterston here.
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