Election means nuclear news is cancelled

As it is local election time the local press go into their state of ignoring news releases - hence no local nuclear news for people. I've recently sent out a couple of unsuccessful news releases re Oldbury - our local reactor - some 16 miles from Stroud. I also bring news re Burnham before it hopefully will get into press in Somerset at least.

Photo: Oldbury power station

Oldbury to restart in summer

Firstly there was the news that this dangerous old plant would be restarted - see my news release here.

Oldbury reactors have been shut since maintenance in June 2005 raised concerns over the safety of its graphite core. Last year I, along with other Greens, helped Radio 4's flagship investigative programme File on Four look at information obtained under the Freedom of Information Act - this shows a catalogue of incidents from leaking cooling system pipes, cracks in boiler tubes and cracks to the graphite core. Oldbury has the worst weight loss of any UK reactor core and independent nuclear engineer John Large has said this could lead to a catastrophic nuclear-fuel fire and release of radiation. Why on earth take the risk? This is putting profit before safety."

Were organs of former nuclear workers at Oldbury nuclear power station secretly been removed?

The Radio 4 Today programme revealed that nuclear workers at Sellafield and other nuclear sites had organs and tissues removed from their bodies at post-mortems apparantly without the knowledge or permission of their relatives. This occurred from 1962 to as late as 1992. Stroud District Green party campaigners asked whether Oldbury workers were subject to this process. See here.

Edward Courtney dies

It was good to finally see Edwards death have a place in the Western Daily Press today and apparently the Gazette are also doing something this week. He was one of my greatest sources of info on nuclear matters and I feel his loss greatly. See Glos Green party note here and my previous blog item here.

Burnham breast cancer excess 70% over ten years

Also today I hear that newly released figures show that Burnham North has suffered a seventy percent excess of breast cancer mortality over the decade to 2005. Greens haven't yet done a news release on this as it seems pointless when the papers refuse to pick the story up - hopefully as the Stop Hinckley group have released lots of info the Western Daily may pick it up. Anyhow I enclose below some of their info - yet more evidence to shut these reactors down for good.

The Office of National Statistics figures were analysed by Dr Chris Busby from Green Audit, who was commissioned by campaign group Stop Hinkley. The new statistics confirm a worrying trend first discovered in research by Dr Busby in 2000 where Burnham North stood out from 150 Somerset electoral wards studied for cancer deaths with twice the expected number.

In 2002 a doorstep health survey by local group, Parents Concerned About Hinkley, PCAH and analysed by Dr Busby also showed breast cancer incidence was 85 percent above average together with excesses of leukaemia, kidney cancer and cervical cancer. The PCAH survey, considered a breakthrough in community epidemiology, was the subject of a row with the Government body charged with auditing radiation-linked health trends, COMARE who later softened their criticism based on their faulty understanding of the large 1,500 sample size, one third of all the Burnham North residents.

The South West Cancer Intelligence was then prompted to conduct a study which also showed a thirty percent excess of breast cancer registrations between 1990 and 1999. When they added three more years' figures up to 2002 their overall thirteen year pattern still showed a statistically significant 21 percent excess. Although SWCIS attributed this rise to efficient breast cancer screening, campaigners argued that good screening should reduce mortality from the illness which is worryingly excessive.

Dr Busby said: "This clearly shows that the breast cancer cluster in Burnham North is a convincing phenomenon and is clearly, in my opinion, related to releases or a release from Hinkley Point. Since radiation causes cancer through mutation we might expect some effect on infant mortality in the area around Hinkley Point and we are now looking to see if that is the case in a study covering West, Mid and North Somerset."

Jim Duffy, spokesman for Stop Hinkley said: "The figures speak for themselves and all sorts of white-washing have not stood up to reasoned examination. Some environmental cause is triggering these cancers and logic points to Hinkley's constant sea and air discharges of radioactive particles upwind of the town: a good reason to shut down these crumbling reactors."