RATHER THAN stop production, a state-owned nuclear power compu.ty knowingly risked the meltdown of a nuclear reactor for nine hours.
Nuclear power is the next industry to be privatised by the Conservative government. Closing the reactor would have led to fines for the power company from National Grid, the electricity suppliers, and would have drawn attention to a series of safety problems at nuclear Nuclear Electric were fined "a six-figure sum" at the Crown Court accident in 1993 at the plant in Wylla, north Wales. It is the world's largest Magnox-class reactor, employing 500 people.
When a 130lb crane grab fell into the reactor and cracked a channel containing a rod of enriched uranium fuel, a partial meltdown became likety. The court heard recordings of staff discussing the financial penalties, laughing and giggling as the accident unfolded.
A meltdown would have contaminateo une oas useo to cool tre reactor. Depressuration in the reactor could have led to the release of radioactive gas into the atmosphere, forcing the evacuation of the surtounoino area Alter nine hours, and unable to monitor the condition of the coolant, Nuclear Electric closed the reactor. It remained closed for two weeks, costing £3 million.
The inditference of Nuclear Electric officials to the accident has neromtenco tears aoour te sdieay of nuclear power in the run-up to the planned E3.5 billion sell-off of of licensing plants for safety comes to an end in December this vear.
Friends of the Earth's Dr Patrick Green asked "if these kind of considerations take over Nuclear Electric when it is in the public sector. what is going to happen when many stations are in the private sector?"
While safety problems in nuthe threat of privatisation, nuclear fission has always been unsafe.
Fission
Nuclear power is produced by attempting to control a nuclear chain reaction. Fission - the splitting of atWS ses doss cul of heat which is used to boil water. Steam produced powers turbines which produce electricity.
The reaction is controlled by separating the uranium fuel into thousands of rods held within graphite channels and cooled by gas or water. If the flow of coolant is obstructed, the fuel can fuse into through the reactor. This is what happened at the 1979 Three Mile Island accident in the United States.
Even if the reaction can be successfully controlled, fission creates further dangers: radiation, waste, and the power stations themselves.
Nuclear radiation consists of tiny rays or particles which are spit out ot Tao oacave caemicdis, such as uranium or radium. These rays. like tiny bulets, tear through living tissue. They can change the electrical charge of the tissue: killing it or changing its normal life cycle.
No level of radiation is safe: while the earth underneath us contains much less radioactivity than a power station it can still damage cells, causing diseases like cancer.
However a single commercial nuclear reactor contains far more dangerous radioactive material than exists on earth naturally. Only nuclear fission can produce plutonium, which fuels nuclear bombs.
Capitalism's desire for cheap electricity, to break the power of oil workers and coal miners, and to produce nuclear weapons does not extend to considering human safety.
No method has been developed for the safe long-term storage of nuclear waste. Nuclear power stations operate for about 30 years: no safe way has been found to dismantle them.
After Wylfa we can expect more nuclear accidents in the coming years. They can only be prevented if democratic control of society ensures that energy is created in sustainable and renewable ways. That needs a social revolution. • Eor a copy of Fred Halstead's booklet What working people • should know about the dangers of nuclear power' send £1.50 to Socialist Outlook Fund, PO Box 1109, London, N4 2UU.
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK No. 90, September 23, 1999; Page 10