Nuclear disaster averted by dirty laundry

Nuclear disaster averted by dirty laundry

www.telegraph.co.uk

A radioactive leak that could have caused Britain's worst nuclear disaster was only averted when a worker in an adjoining room spotted water as he sorted laundry, according to a newly-obtained official report.

More than 40,000 gallons of radioactive water leaked into the open when a 15ft crack appeared in a pipe leading to a cooling pond in the Sizewell A reactor in January 2007.

If the worker had not spotted it, the pool, which contained 5,000 spent uranium fuel rods, could have run dry, causing the rods to ignite which would have sparked a supercharged radioactive fire, it was claimed.

Despite the potential severity of the incident, no one has been fined or prosecuted.

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[edit on 12-6-2009 by grover]

Always do your laundry.

I took part in the many Seabrook N.H. protests in the 70's and early 80's over the nuclear power plant being built then.

Like space missions, I worry when the work is farmed out to the lowest bidder on projects like nuclear power plants.

At Seabrook it was discovered that the main water coolant system had been installed backwards so in case of a melt down it would have, if gone undiscovered, emptied the cooling tank much like this leak in Britain.

Yes nuclear power is safe except when it isn't and yes its clean if you ignore the tons of radioactive wastes.

www.telegraph.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 12-6-2009 by grover]

Wow, thats amazing. Thank god for that guy doing the laundry!

I live near Sizewell!

Its not good.

When I hear someone go on about how safe nuclear power is I remind them that any anchor is only as strong as its weakest link...

And usually when it comes to high technology the weakest link is usually the human designing it.

Scary stuff. I do not understand how a nuclear power plant does not have a level on the water covering these rods. If the brake fluid on a car gets even a little bit low the brake light comes on. Who is watching these storage tanks??What, are they sitting there watching American Idol?
What kind of fire would then happen? How far felt would be the effects? I wonder what kind of technicians can repair this leaking tank? Is this a job for robots only?
Thanks for the alert.s+f

[edit on 12-6-2009 by dntwastetime]

Originally posted by Nuclear Bacon

I live near Sizewell!

You wouldn't have been if it wasn't for this laundry man!