Michael Weir
Shadow SNP Spokesperson (Business), Shadow SNP Spokesperson (Energy and Climate Change)
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what (a) coolant leaks and (b) fires have been recorded at each UK nuclear installation in each of the last five years.
Charles Hendry
The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change
The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE/NII) screens incident reports made by licensees to identify those which have had the potential to challenge a nuclear safety system. A search of the raw input data for such screening from January 2005 to the end of December 2010 has been undertaken for details of leaks and fires at nuclear installations.
A 'coolant leak' has been interpreted as being a loss of coolant, including clean coolant, from an item of plant into the working environment of the licensed site. Coolant itself has been interpreted as being water, carbon dioxide or hydrogen on a power station, and water elsewhere.
A 'fire' has been interpreted as being a situation where ignition of material has taken place on the licensed site or instances of smouldering where such ignition could not reasonably be ruled out given the information in the record.
| Coolant leaks | ||
| Date | Installation | Incident |
| 2005 | ||
| 1 January | Heysham 2 | Steam leak on Turbine Generator 7 |
| 5 February | Hinkley Point B | Carbon dioxide leak from tank |
| 19 February | Hinkley Point B | Carbon dioxide leak from tank |
| 25 February | Torness | Carbon dioxide leak through in-service inspection penetration |
| 15 March | Torness | Carbon dioxide leak from ring main |
| 25 June | Dungeness A | Carbon dioxide leak from main CO2 plant |
| 4 July | Sellafield | Damp patch discovered adjacent to B30 pond wall |
| 25 July | Oldbury | Steam leak through thermocouple pocket of Boiler 4 on Reactor 1 |
| 4 August | Hinkley Point B | Carbon dioxide leak from vaporiser valve |
| 30 October | Dungeness A | Carbon dioxide leak through failed isolation valve to pressure gauge |
| 2006 | ||
| 30 January | Sellafield | Leak of dosed cooling water from B832 cooling tower |
| 18 February | Sellafield | Leak of pond water through expansion joint above the stainless steel seal in B310 AGR storage pond |
| 24 March | Hunterston B | Carbon dioxide leak in pipe trench |
| 11 September | Hinkley point B | Carbon dioxide leak from supply pump |
| 23 September | Hartlepool | Alternator hydrogen coolant leak |
| 26 September | Hartlepool | Fracture of emergency cooling water main |
| 2 October | Dungeness B | Auxiliary cooling water pipe work leak |
| 15 October | Sizewell A | Steam leak from Turbine Alternator 1 |
| 18 November | Heysham 2 | Steam leak from Reactor 7 |
| 2007 | ||
| 7 January | Sizewell A | Fracture of pond recirculating water system pipe work |
| 18 January | Sellafield | Waste Vitrification Plant electrical inductor cooling water leak |
| 1 March | Hinkley Point B | Carbon dioxide leak outside plant room |
| 26 March | Dungeness B | Carbon dioxide leak in reactor basement |
| 1 June | Hunterston B | Leak from condensate booster pump |
| 2 June | Heysham 2 | Leak in low pressure feed heater pipe work |
| 18 July | Dungeness B | Leak of tritiated water identified |
| 19 September | Hartlepool | Leak of pressure vessel cooling water identified on boiler closure unit |
| 26 September | Dungeness B | Carbon dioxide leak from storage tank |
| 28 September | Hunterston B | Steam leaks in high pressure gland pipe work |
| 27 October | Oldbury | Carbon dioxide leak from fuelling machine |
| 2008 | ||
| 19 February | Oldbury | Carbon dioxide leak from storage tank |
| 20 February | Torness | Carbon dioxide leak from gas bypass plant |
| 26 June | Heysham 2 | Steam leak in gland steam drain line |
| 26 July | Heysham 1 | Carbon dioxide leak from storage tank |
| 7 October | Wylfa | Carbon dioxide leak from storage tank |
| 23 December | Torness | Carbon dioxide leak from valve in the fuel machine standby CO2 coolant supply. |
| 2009 | ||
| 24 April | Hartlepool | Hydrogen leak from Unit 2 alternator frame |
| 26 May | Heysham 1 | Turbine cooling water leak |
| 28 May | Hinkley Point B | Pressure vessel cooling water leak from Reactor 4 sump |
| 25 June | Heysham 2 | Loss of Hydrogen from turbo alternator |
| 8 July | Torness | Leak from spent fuel pond cooling water system |
| 9 December | Sellafield | Fuel pond chiller water leakage |
| 21 December | Heysham 1 | Back up cooling water leak soon after start up |
| 2010 | ||
| 22 January | Sellafield | Leakage of cooling water to active storage tanks |
| 7 June | Dungeness B | Gland steam leak after start up |
| 26 October | Heysham 1 | Small water leak from buffer store drain line |
| 8 November | Heysham 1 | Emergency cooling water pipe failure and leak |
| Fire | ||
| Date | Site | Incident |
| 2005 | ||
| 4 February | Heysham 1 | Smouldering lagging on turbine |
| 8 March | Heysham 2 | Fire on reactor basement sump pump |
| 22 April | Harwell | Capacitor fire in building 459 |
| 22 June | Torness | Variable frequency output transformer fire |
| 30 June | Barrow | Portacabin fire |
| 14 July | Heysham 2 | Fire in bearing of fuel handling plant extract fan |
| 16 September | Torness | Fire in purge air compressor no. 2 |
| 31 October | Dungeness A | Fire in bulk group 4 LF power supply |
| 2006 | ||
| 23 January | Sellafield | Smoking bitumen seal around pipe on Combined Heat and Power Plant turbine |
| 24 March | Dounreay | Hydrogen ignition during waste cutting operation in Prototype Fast Reactor |
| 21 April | Springfields | Uranium shredder fire in building 338 |
| 23 October | Heysham 2 | Smouldering leak management tray beside hot turbine reheat pipe work |
| 23 December | Burghfield | Smouldering cable in plant room |
| 2007 | ||
| 1 February | Hinkley Point B | Fire in bund of gas circulator lube system |
| 2 June | Hunterston B | Bearing fire on turbo generator 7 |
| 12 August | Heysham 2 | Bearing fire in cooling water pump |
| 2008 | ||
| 7 January | Dounreay | Fire in office suite of D1208 |
| 13 March | GE Healthcare | Fire in inactive recycling plant |
| 15 June | Rolls Royce Manufacturing | Fire in glove box |
| 2 December | Hartlepool | Aerosol can fire |
| 3 December | Trawsfynydd | convector heater fire in ponds office |
| 2009 | ||
| 12 March | Heysham 1 | Lagging smoke/fire |
| 15 March | GE Healthcare | Fire in services spine duct |
| 31 March | Barrow | Fire on the casing of Astute Boat 2 during welding/grinding operations |
| 18 April | Barrow | Fire on the bridge fin of Astute Boat I |
| 29 April | Oldbury | Smoking air circuit breaker |
| 18 May | Wylfa | Fire in Turbine alternator |
| 22 July | Sellafield | Extract fan bearing fire |
| 23November | Dungeness B | Boiler annex hydraulic fluid caught fire |
| 2010 | ||
| 28 May | Dounreay | Small in cell fire of sodium residues |
| 2 July | Sizewell B | Fire in ductwork in heating and ventilation building |
| 4 July | Aldermaston | Solvent fire minor bums to one person |
| 2 August | Oldbury | Lagging fire near turbo alternator |
| 22 September | Sizewell B | Condensate pump fire |
| 30 September | Wylfa | Smouldering electrical contactor in Turbine Hall |
| 25 October | Hinkley Point B | Fire in circulator workshop |
| 8 December | Heysham 2 | Bearing failure causing smoke in services building |
Does this answer the above question?
Yes3 people think so
No0 people think not
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