Plans to delay inspections at Oldbury nuke condemned

What with Christmas, work and other bits I've had a wee break from blogging - 8 days - the longest since I started this nearly 20 months ago - anyhow I'm back - and back with a letter I sent off yesterday to local press regarding inspections of our local nuclear power station - 16 miles from Stroud...

Photo: Christmas tree

Regular blog readers will know that this 39 year old nuke is, well, to say the least struggling...here's some of what I wrote and more....In May Reactor 2 was restarted after two years of inspections and closed almost immediately after a large explosion in the generator/ transformer that was heard in Oldbury village - indeed they could also see a plume of smoke.

A second attempt to restart failed in July when a turbine began vibrating. The reactor was eventually started in August and was due for an inspection shut-down in November but this was then delayed until January. Now the industry wants to delay that until after the reactor's permanent closure at the end of 2008.

These are very serious and worrying incidents but of greater concern is the state of the oldest and most corroded reactor core in the country. The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate writing to the Shut Oldbury Campaign state that "a key aspect of the NII decision regarding deferment of the outage is the graphite core safety case." Yet without shutting down the reactor it's impossible to gauge whether cracks have developed in the core - video cameras need to be inserted down the hundreds of fuel channels.

The only other method for guaging the strength or weakness of the graphite material is to drill out samples and test them. But this is a much more generalised technique from which information is extrapolated. It is not specific enough to pin-point crucial areas of damage.

The regulators said in June they couldn't licence the reactor till the end of 2008. For Oldbury to now make this request is outrageous and could have unthinkable consequences especially as they still haven't fitted a key extra safety system.

Meanwhile Reactor 1, that is even more damaged, has been out of service since August 2006 awaiting similar test results. Shutting Oldbury finally now is the only safe option.

Photos: talk earlier this year to hear John Large - pictured here with a fuel rod

You can see the letter sent here with extra notes - indeed the Glos Green party website has lots more re the graphite problem...

....also see my blog (10th Oct 2007) and Green party site re the recent talk in Stroud from Independent nuclear engineer John Large - he showed why he and others considered there were serious risks and gave a detailed description as to why an accident at Oldbury could be comparable to Chernobyl.