Sellafield

[D J Hornsey <bssdjh@bath.ac.uk>]

  Dear Radsafers,

            As you will all be aware, BNFL is going through the mill in
the UK media at present at its apparent short-circuiting of quality
control tests on MOX fuel pellets. The information gleaned from the more
responsible newspapers quite often highlights safety issues associated
with fuel pellets that were of variable sizes. Can any of you nuclear
power people out there tell me what the possible safety implications are
to a power plant using such malformed pellets. From what I gather each
pellet is only 13 mm long and should be cylindical in profile, but
according to the Independent today, many were flower-pot in profile. How
serious is this? Is it a potential safety issue or will it be more of a
problem in energy efficiency gain in the whole plant?

    Regards,

         David Hornsey 

 **************************************
 * David J. Hornsey, Radiation Safety.*
 * South Building,                    *
 * University of Bath                 *             
 * Claverton Down,                    * 
 * Bath BA2 7AY. UK.                  *
 *                                    *
 * tel:01225 826540                   *
 * fax:01225 826779                   *  
 * e-mail: d.j.hornsey@bath.ac.uk     *
 **************************************

************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html