British Nuclear Fuels, the UK atomic services group, said on Wednesday
that three spent nuclear fuel rods had been broken after falling 80 feet
at its Chapelcross plant in Scotland, but stressed there had been no
abnormal release of radiation.
The state-owned company dropped 24 fuel rods during a routine
refuelling operation two weeks ago. It originally said the rods had fallen
a distance of two feet, but admitted earlier this week that 12 had fallen
the full length of a discharge chute.
The accident comes at a time when BNFL is still trying to rebuild its
safety reputation following a data falsification scandal in 1999. Brian
Wilson, the UK energy minister, is known to be annoyed at the delay in
disclosing the full scale of the accident and is expected to demand an
explanation from BNFL's managers at a regular meeting on Wednesday.
A BNFL official said all 24 of the rods had been accounted for
following a remote-controlled video inspection of the facility. The 12
rods that fell down the discharge chute had all landed in a shielded flask
placed at the bottom to receive fuel as part of the normal discharge
routine. The other 12 rods remained in a defuelling machine above the
shaft as expected.
"Three of the elements were broken when we did an inspection last night
but there was never any danger. The fuel has now been sealed into the
flask and removed to a storage pond where it can be recovered," he said.
Greenpeace, the environmental campaign group, said there were now
concerns over the retrieval of the 12 remaining rods. It called for
Chapelcross and the Calder Hall plant at Sellafield, which uses a similar
de-fuelling mechanism, to be closed until the cause of the fault was
known.
"This accident is very serious and far from over," said a campaigner.
BNFL had temporarily shut down two of the reactors on the Chapelcross
site and planned to shut the other two to concentrate on the recovery
operation. But it said the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate had given it
clearance to keep the reactors running.
Bob Clayton, Chapelcross station manager, said: "This is good news.
However, much work remains to be done, particularly to retrieve the 12
elements from the defuelling machine. The station is already putting
together a team of specialist engineers which will retrieve this fuel
safely."
An official from the NII said it would continue to monitor the incident
and that investigations were continuing.