The Nuclear Safety Newsletter revealed the flaw in Oldbury's ongoing safety case as campaigners discovered that the nuclear industry has ploughed £5 million into research contracts since 2004 to investigate the safety of the material which makes up reactor cores in the UK's ageing fleet of power stations.
 
Cllr Philip Booth, a Stroud District councillor said: "News of Oldbury closing is reassuring. Oldbury has the worst weight loss of any UK reactor core and an independent nuclear engineer has said this could lead to a catastrophic nuclear-fuel fire and release of radiation (ii)."

Reactor two was shut down last June for an expected two month 'outage' but has still not been restarted as the graphite corrosion was found to be extreme at 34.5% in the worst affected areas. Reactor one was restarted last June after more than twelve months closure but has now reached the same corrosion level as reactor two and will also shut in early September meaning no power will then be produced at the station (iii).
 
Philip Booth said: "Oldbury's shut-down date is December 2008. Why waste any more millions on propping up this 38 year-old dinosaur - on grounds of safety it should close now (iv)."

Updated 3rd September 2006: A press release concerning Oldbury nuclear power station sent on 30th August contained a mistake in the figure given for overall costs to the nuclear industry of tests and research on reactor core graphite. The figure should have been £5 million and a correction has been made to the above news release. This figure is arrived at by adding the individual costs of 41 research contracts between 2004 and this year: £2,713,202. From this cost the estimate of 42 similar research projects from 1999 to 2004 was extrapolated. Both added together would be £5.2 million, rounded down £5 million. Source: Data received from the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate under the Freedom of Information Act.

Updated 23rd September 2006: Oldbury remains closed. Philip Booth commented: "If it restarts it will join the appalling Russian ‘Mayak’ nuclear reactors in terms of extreme operating conditions. According recently to new HSE papers forwarded to Stop Hinkley, these Siberian reactors are running with cracks and even misaligned geometry in their graphite cores. The industry and regulators want to know more about these accidents-waiting-to-happen to inform them how long they can continue to operate crumbling UK graphite reactors. But the Russians are tight-lipped. So it seems they will monitor Oldbury, almost as an experiment, to see when a fuel-fire or other mishap might occur as a guide for the bigger Advance Gas-Cooled Reactors like Hinkley B, which are also approaching the end of the line. As top engineer John Large said last year, the industry is working in the dark but also at a ‘cliff-edge’. This is very worrying."

Notes:
 
(i) A publication by the nuclear regulator, says of owner British Nuclear Group's case to justify restarting Oldbury's reactor two: "some key materials testing data is still to be obtained to demonstrate that the graphite retains sufficient strength to perform its safety function... The company continues to investigate the feasabilty of alternative avenues for demonstrating the safety operations at higher graphite weight loss. The inspectorate is being kept informed of progress but no detailed safety proposals have yet been prepared."

Quotes from Nuclear Safety Newsletter, published by the Nuclear installations Inspectorate, August edition.
http://www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/nsn3706.pdf
 
"Graphite Contracts 2004-2006", a list of research projects funded by the UK nuclear industry on graphite safety problems, recently obtained by Stop Hinkley from the Nuclear Installations Inpectorate under the Freedom of Information Act. 41 projects were shown with associated costs. A further 42 research projects were also listed undertaken between 1999 and 2004 but with no data on costs.
 
(ii) John Large, independent nuclear consultant, spoke on regional TV documentaries related to Oldbury nuclear power station on September 5th and 6th last year:
http://www.largeassociates.com/
 http://www.glosgreenparty.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=746&Itemid=2

(iii) Station manager Joe Lamonby in a letter (28/04/06) to Gloucestershire Green party outlined closure dates and work being done on the graphite depletion.

(iv) See previous Glos Green party news releases:
http://www.glosgreenparty.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1348&Itemid=2
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