Concern at plumes of steam over Oldbury nuclear station
A MASSIVE plume of steam was seen rising from the Oldbury nuclear reactor, frightening residents on both sides of the Severn.
It came as three Gloucestershire MPs backed a document calling for investment in the nuclear industry and insisted it is the way forward, despite the Japanese nuclear crisis.
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"VENTING" Steam is seen rising from Oldbury nuclear power station.
A new reactor is being built at Oldbury in South Gloucestershire, but on Thursday, steam billowed from one of the two reactors there, leading concerned residents to fear the worst.
Magnox, which runs the site, said steam was released as part of a normal automatic shutdown after an electrical failure.
"My wife said the noise was horrendous," said anti-nuclear campaigner Reg Illingworth, who lives near the site.
He said he feared that if a more serious problem occurred, thousands of people in the surrounding area, including the Forest of Dean, would have to be evacuated.
"Magnox issued a statement saying there was nothing to worry about but given the concerns about Japan it was worrying."
The previous day, Cheltenham Liberal Democrat MP Martin Horwood was one of several MPs tabling an early day motion calling for the suspension of Britain's involvement in developing nuclear power.
But other MPs disagreed. Neil Carmichael, MP for Stroud, said: "I'm not expecting an earthquake here in Britain. The disaster in Japan is of a size and scale that clearly there has to be a review of their approach to nuclear power."
MP for Gloucester, Richard Graham said the nuclear industry in the UK will carefully consider what has gone wrong in Japan.
"It looks as if the reaction by the Japanese nuclear industry has managed to control the worst of any problems," he said.
"I am sure the nuclear industry here and the operators of existing nuclear power stations like EDF at Barnwood will be studying very carefully the implications for nuclear plants here."
A Magnox spokeswoman said: "Reactor 2 was automatically and safely shut down following an electrical problem on conventional plant in the site's turbine hall.
"Post trip cooling on Reactor 2 has commenced successfully. Investigations into the cause of this event are ongoing."
She added: "Residents nearby will have seen steam released from the Reactor 2 boilers. This is a normal part of an automated shutdown."
19 Comments
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by Tim, Gloucester
Sunday, March 27 2011, 1:40PM
“Please read!
http://www.radiationandreason.com/”
by Monkey, Up a tree
Sunday, March 20 2011, 6:39PM
“Brilliant! where do they get these people? I wish TIG would instigate an IQ and and rationality test before allowing posters on this site, but then I guess we would be deprived of such boneheaded comments!
Spong, Spongford
I really hope you are deliberately joking rather than just having your facts mixed up. To describe a "tectonic fault SW of Ireland" is rather humerous, have you even checked Wikipedia or the British Geological Society? I guess they are lying when they show the Eurasian plate running south of Spain and up the middle of the Atlantic. Or do you mean "SW of Ireland" in the same way that Brazil is "SW of Ireland"?
Perhaps I am being blind, perhaps you would care to point me in the direction of some proof that an 8m tsunami has ever entered the Bristol Channel, let alone since the nuclear power stations were built?
Whilst some like to use the internet for spreading wild rumour, conjecture and slanted opinion, those same people fail to use it to do their research properly. Indeed there is speculation that a tsunami may have travelled the Bristol Channel in 1607, this is balanced with the probability that it may well have been simply a high tidal flow, and since no-one at the time knew what a tsunami was and none of them are alive today and no scientific data collected there is no proof!
But I guess that is just the way you like it!”
by Truth, what is truth?, Glos
Sunday, March 20 2011, 11:11AM
“Try this editorial from today's Observer: http://tinyurl.com/4l9ltz6”
by Venk Shenoi, Blaisdon glos
Sunday, March 20 2011, 10:34AM
“All doom and Gloom? If there was a serious nuclear leak from the nuclear reactor - it will be carbon dioxide gas and debris from the graphite and fuel core of Oldbury - you won;t notice it until you get radiation sickness.
Steam dumping is a regular feature at stations with steam turbines - only people have noticed this at this moment when Nuclear is highly visible.
Regardless of the sad events in Japan, the world can not do without nuclear in the energy mix and security.
Of course there are alternatives - yes we can all reduce our energy consumption, profligate lifestyles, make do without our gadgets - mpg players, cars, mobile phones, and entertainments, holiday travel, etc, etc,, ask for lower wages to enable a more sustainable pace of life - and yes - cut out about two thirds of the earth's population to allow land and nature to recover from the century or more's worth of self-inflicted harm on mother earth.
Until that happens - life is full of risks - you have more chance of being gored by Forest boar walking around Speech House.”
by Nuke Supporter, 'Nam
Sunday, March 20 2011, 2:35AM
“There appears to be economy to the explaination given by the spokesperson.
We deserve a full explaination of what happened at Oldbury so we can make up our own mind about this event.
Hopefully our nuclear industry will learn to be more transparent than this.”
by Spong, Spongford
Saturday, March 19 2011, 9:31PM
“@Monkey, Up a Tree:
Sorry son, she spoke the truth and you're the idiot. There's a tectonic fault SW of Ireland which, over the centuries, has produced a number of 'quakes with sufficient magnitude to produce tsunamis of 8m and more. The silly little tin sheds housing the nuclear power stations on/adjacent to the Severn estuary would not stand a chance. Try47degrees, 45 minutes, 12 seconds north/7 degrees, 57 minutes, 24 seconds west on GoogleEarth.
Doomed, I tell you; we're all doomed.”
by Alfonso, Gloucester
Saturday, March 19 2011, 7:57PM
“Truth, what is truth?,
That may be true about the survivors, but let's not forget the 105,000 who died in the two attacks and shortly afterwards from blast and radiation sickness”
by Truth, what is truth?, Glos
Saturday, March 19 2011, 5:55PM
“"The perception of the extreme risk of radiation exposure is also somewhat contradicted by the experience of 87,000 survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, who have been followed up for their whole lives.
By 1992, over 40,000 had died, but it has been estimated that only 690 of those deaths were due to the radiation."
BBC News web site”
by Alfonso, Gloucester
Saturday, March 19 2011, 4:09PM
“Sceptical. "Children are much more vulnerable to the harmful effects of radiation disasters than the general population because their bodies absorb and metabolize substances differently, and because they are more likely to develop certain cancers from such an exposure", American Assoc of Paediatrics.
Official UN figures predicted up to 9,000 Chernobyl-related cancer deaths. Some authorities have predicted considerably higher (up to 93,000).”
by Nicholas Angel, Sandford
Saturday, March 19 2011, 1:01PM
“Daily Mail science - oxymoron!”