Radio 4's flagship investigative programme File on Four last night presented a sturdy assault on British Energy's safety record, throwing doubt on its abilities to keep crucial fully trained staff against its cost-cutting agenda.
I had several phone calls with the reporter Julian O'Halloran regarding this programme - at times it has felt like I was the only one campaigning on this issue locally otherthan Jim Duffy of the Stop Hinkley campaign - the SNJ has hardly ever covered this story as it is seen as not in their catchment area - yet Oldbury is only 16 miles from Stroud - it is great to at last to get wider recognition for this serious issue that is not being addressed. See previous Glos Green party news releases on this issue here and by using search engine.
Julian O'Halloran also had a team come and interview Stroud's Green Mayor Kevin Cranston re Oldbury nuclear power station (see photo above) - in the end the concentrated on Hinkley for the story.
Here's how the BBC advertised the show:
"The shut down of six nuclear reactors has dealt a massive blow to British Energy. Twenty-four percent was knocked off the company's shares when it emerged earlier this year cracks had been found in the pipes at Hinkley Point power station in Somerset, England. Leaks were found also found in the cooling system pipes at a plant in Hartlepool, England and cracks were discovered in boiler tubes at its Hunterston BR3 power plant in Scotland. But the effects go far beyond the stock market. Some analysts fear that the current shut down puts the UK at greater risk of power cuts and outages especially if there is a winter cold snap. The government maintains it has spare generating capacity to cope with any shortfall. But some observers claim that ministers are less confident in private."BE's response was defensive and formulaic and in some cases they even admitted they should have done better. On critical boiler tube failures at Hinkley and Hunterston a spokesman could not say when any BE nuclear power station had a full boiler tube examination except one reactor a full four years ago!
Interviews included Dr John Large, nuclear consultant; Chris Ballance Scottish Green MSP; Rita Holmes, Hunterston campaigner; a myriad of technical and economic experts and Jim Duffy, the tireless and hugely knowledgeable Stop Hinkley campaigner.
You can hear the 37 minute documentary for one week through the File on Four website:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/file_on_4/default.stm
2 comments:
Edited bits from press release Jim Duffy, Stop Hinkley Coordinator that arrived in my email box this morning: 'Hail of criticism in Hinkley report'
Boiler tube cracking - A British Energy spokesman was forced to reveal that a full examination of boiler tubes had not taken place for four years and that was in just one of their seven Advance Cooled Reactors, before the surprise discovery of extensive boiler cracking at Hinkley. In the case of Hinkley and other AGR reactors, he admitted examination had been only on a partial ‘sampling’ basis.
Nuclear consultant John Large blasted British Energy for being taken by surprise by the discovery of cracks forcing the closure of four reactors, blaming BE’s inspection regime. He said failures in ten per cent of Hinkley’s boiler tubes were far too many to be acceptable. But he did not save the safety regulator from criticism as they had failed in their task by not ensuring a regular maintenance programme. The boiler tube cracking had forced Hinkley and sister station Hunterston inScotlandto shut reactors down since September with predicted but not definite restart dates in January (1). Repair work will then continue in the summer.
Reactor core cracking - A representative from the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate, Len Creswell, when interviewed said that a reduction in strength of the graphite core was unavoidable with age and that Hinkley’s reactor core had now lost 25 to 27 per cent of its original material. He agreed that the bone weakening disease, osteoporosis, was ‘not a bad analogy’ of Hinkley’s ageing problem.
BE's spokesman, when pressed, appeared to claim that hidden graphite cracks were possible to monitor which was flatly contradicted by the nuclear regulator’s documents obtained by Stop Hinkley and quoted in the programme by Jim Duffy. John Large criticised BE for looking at ways to reduce safety margins set by the regulator over the reactor core cracks which he said the same documents showed the regulators were considerably concerned about.
The programme highlighted that only one of British Energy’s fleet of seven AGRs was fully operational in September when Hinkley’s boiler cracks were revealed. Nuclear analyst, Dieter Helm said that Hinkley was built in one of the worst organised construction programmes in the world with the AGRs consequently prone to unexpected problems that other nuclear power stations do not get. As these reactors have got older they have become the world’s worst performers.
Another Government bale-out? A nuclear economist suggested the combined shut-downs coupled with other rising costs for British Energy might lead to another Government rescue of the company as in 2003, which cost £5 billion. The cracking problems, some highlighted by documents obtained by Stop Hinkley, had this year cost the Government an estimated £1 billion in the aborted sale of its 65% share of the company.
Jim Duffy from Stop Hinkley said: “File on Four’s description of Hinkley sums it up: old and unreliable hardware. It’s past its sell by date, it’s cracking up inside and its operators cut down on safety inspections abetted by the regulator, then pretend they know what’s happening when they don’t. It’s appalling that we’re running a third worldreactor in the fourth richest economy. I feel sorry for the men who now expose themselves to a year’s dose of radiation in a few days trying to fix the corroded tubes in the heart of this decrepit old reactor. And for all us tax-payers who have baled out this wretched company and may do again. Instead let's shut Hinkley right now.”
Close the b***** things down - nuclear is old technology and not needed.
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