Oldbury nuke failures: questions that need answering

In the light of Oldbury's denials of serious safety problems in the Bristol Evening Post on Monday it was good to see my letter in Western Daily Press yesterday - the risks are far too great to restart this 39 year old dinosaur.

Here is a list of questions for starters that we hope to get answers to:

1. If a reactor trip failed to extinguish a single-channel fuel-fire, in a worst case example how quickly might adjacent channels catch fire? Please outline the sequence involved here. Please refer to issues of brittleness in the corroded graphite bricks and how hot gasses might or might not seep through cracks created by a fuel fire.

2. Nuclear Installations Inspectorate papers state that the risk of a single channel clad-melt (or fuel fire) is one chance in a thousand or 10(-3). Please say in statistical terms what is the chance of multiple channel clad-melt following single channel clad-melt.

3. There seem to be mixed messages in the media as to whether reactor 2 was tripped manually or automatically after the generator fire on 30th May. Which was it?

4. NII papers state that the Burst Clad Detection system is periodically overridden. Are all designated automatic trip systems functioning as such or are some modified or overridden and subject to operator interpretation of alarms or instrumentation?

5. How much more quickly would a Failed Fuel Trip System detect and trip the reactor compared with existing safety alarms and trip systems?

6. NII internal paper ‘Graphite Safety Case 62/07’ states Oldbury had identified this as an ALARP modification, ie reasonably practicable. Could Oldbury operators confirm this was and remains their position? If so why was the modification not applied? Are there future plans to install the failed fuel trip system?

7. Please state the current status of reactor 2 since the 30th May generator fire. Some newspapers report Oldbury’s view that a restart does not require NII consent.

8. Please confirm or deny that 400 staff would be made redundant when Oldbury shuts down at the end of next year, as reported in the Bristol Evening Post.

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