nuclear-news

British nuclear reactors are a different design, but, yes Britain could have a Chernobyl style accident

Herald 5th June 2019 IT is the chillingly realistic true-life drama gripping audiences on both
sides of the Atlantic. But Chernobyl, the HBO and Sky Atlantic hit series
on the 1986 meltdown, has also got viewers thinking. The show – which ended
its five-episode run last night – has reignited a debate that has, until
recently, been overshadowed by concerns on global warning.

Suddenly, says Edinburgh-based campaigner and consultant Peter Roche, people are talking
about nuclear energy again, and not just as a carbon-neutral power source
to help combat the climate emergency. That, he reckons, is good. Mr Roche
has been riveted by Chernobyl, the TV show. “I am surprised how popular it
is,” he said. “A whole new generation of people are learning about the
hazards of nuclear accidents.”

It released radiation in a plume that fell
across Europe. Everybody in Scotland, The Herald reported in 1989, was
irradiated. People who ate game, we revealed, got 10 times the average
dose. But for campaigners like Mr Roche – back in 1986 a member of Scram, a
group which united around opposition to East Lothian’s Torness nuclear
power plant – it became an object lesson.

But could Scotland or the UK
suffer a Chernobyl? Mr Roche fears so. “That we don’t have this kind of
reactor in the UK was always the get-out clause of the British industry,”
he said. “But that does not mean we cannot have another kind of accident.”
Mr Roche recently warned that Hunterston could cause a Chernobyl. He was
speaking after The Ferret, a Scottish investigative journalism team,
revealed operator EDF had found 350 graphite cracks. That delayed plans to
restart two reactors which were undergoing maintenance.

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/17684146.is-another-accident-on-the-scale-of-chernobyl-possible-expert-yes/

June 6, 2019 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general