Revealed: the safety ‘failures’ at Dounreay

[struggle4progress]

EXCLUSIVE.
By Rob Edwards, Environment Editor

THE nuclear complex at Dounreay has suffered more than 250 safety “failures” in the past six years, according to documents released by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa).
Many of the leaks, spills and equipment breakdowns have never been reported before, and raise concerns that Dounreay’s operator, the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), has failed to overcome the poor safety practices of the past. <snip>

There are repeated violations of safety conditions, leaking waste tanks, lost radioactive waste and power cuts. Some records of discharges have been wrong for months.

As many as 18 incidents are listed in the first three months of 2005. They include an “abnormal” radioactive discharge from a stack, the contamination of grass with caesium-137, and a spill of radioactive caustic soda.

Sepa’s list also records evidence that, in 2003, rabbits and birds had been using several nuclear waste pits. In January 2004, an analysis of rabbit droppings from a contaminated area showed that they were radioactive. <snip>

15 May 2005

http://www.sundayherald.com/49762

[Massacure]

1. All the more reason to build replace the old nuclear plants with new ones.

New reactors are much safer than the ones that were built 30 years ago.