30th May 2007

The Green party have once again demanded the permanent closure of Oldbury nuclear power station following a generator fire today in a reactor which had just restarted after a two year shut-down and warnings by the Green party 2 weeks ago that an accident was possible.

A fire started at about 9.15 am today in one of the generators linked to reactor 2. Automatic systems cut in to douse the insulation around the generator and the reactor, which only yesterday fed into the national grid for the first time in nearly 2 years, was manually shut down. Oldbury is just across the water from towns in the Forest of Dean, 16 miles from Stroud and 26 from Gloucester and Cheltenham.

Cllr Philip Booth, a local District councillor and spokesperson for Stroud District Green party said: "It is likely the fire is related to the the two years the reactor has been out of action(i). It is possible that this may have further damaged the defective reactor core - which is already alleged to be the most corroded reactor of its kind in the world. Less than 2 weeks ago Greens warned that it was not safe to restart this ancient reactor. This incident is further evidence that Oldbury must be closed permanently. It is just plain wrong that this 39 year old power station should be allowed to restart."

Reactor two had been shut since May 2005 due to safety concerns by the nuclear regulator as the bricks in the reactor core had corroded by as much as one third. It started warming up on Monday 14th May when the station manager praised the work and maintenance of his staff in restarting the 39 year old reactor.

Jim Duffy spokesman for the Shut Oldbury campaign (ii), said; "It was inevitable there would be some glitches restarting an ancient reactor described as defective by the safety regulator. Very luckily there was no steam loss as the reactor would have tripped automatically, a dangerous event for such a brittle reactor. A steam release inside the reactor could have been catastrophic. Even the manual shut-down would have incurred great tensions within the reactor core as it cooled down suddenly. There is now every chance some bricks have cracked so this reactor should definitely not restart - the risks are now much too high."

He added: "The regulators as well as the operators are at fault here. No reactor should catch fire on restart. The safety case was obviously deeply flawed. What else have they missed?"


 
Notes:
(i) British Nuclear Group restarted a reactor that had been halted for almost two years because of safety concerns. Anti-nuclear campaigners said the plant remains dangerous. See Telegraph 30th May 2007.

(ii) Jim Duffy, Shut Oldbury Campaign and Stop Hinkley contact details: 07968 974805