HC Deb 15 October 1976 vol 917 cc208-10W
Mr. Dempsey

asked the Secretary of State for Energy what questions on safety he has put to the Nuclear Inspectorate.

Mr. Benn

A list of questions bearing on fast reactor safety which I am sending to the Nuclear Inspectorate is set out below. The questions cover issues which, I think, are of concern to the ordinary citizen. I will publish the answers in due course. I have placed in the House of Commons Library today two further lists of questions which have been sent to me by the hon. Member for Carshalton (Mr. Forman) and by the Friends of the Earth. I am asking the inspectorate to answer those of them which fall within its responsibilities, and am arranging for the remainder to be considered by the Government Departments and other bodies concerned. These answers also I will in due course publish.

Comparative safety of thermal and fast reactors

1. Has the work done on fast reactor technology so far, here or world-wide, enabled you to say authoritatively that fast reactors will be as safe in operation as thermal reactors now in use?

2 What are the major safety hazards associated with fast reactors not to be found in thermal systems?

3. How far have we got in answering the questions raised about the safety of fast reactors?

The kind of accidents possible with fast reactors

4. What sort of failures in fast reactors could precipitate a major nuclear accident?

5. What system of containment would be needed to guarantee, beyond doubt, that a fast reactor accident would be held within that containment?

6. If the core melted through the pressure vessel and sank into the earth how far would it go and what could stop it and how could it be subsequently recovered?

7. How vulnerable would a fast reactor be to the following set of circumstances:

  1. (a) A complete failure of a power supply to the control systems?
  2. (b) The impact of an aircraft crash on it?
  3. (c) The impact of a high explosive bomb or missile striking it?
  4. (d) The impact of a nuclear weapon striking it?

The possible consequences of a fast reactor accident

8. What could happen if there was a serious nuclear accident in a fast reactor?

9. How many people would be killed if a fast reactor went wrong; in what area, and over what period of time would the subsequent radio-activity continue to have fatal effects?

10. Have any large scale tests been undertaken to assess the exact consequences of a nuclear accident at a fast reactor?

11. How much warning would there be of a potential nuclear accident to permit the evacuation of the site and the neighbouring area?

The problems arising from the use of plutonium

12. What are the special problems associated with the manufacture and holding of stocks of plutonium?

13. What are the special hazards and problems associated with the re-processing of fast reactor fuel elements?

14. What are the safety hazards relating to re-processing comparable to the set of circumstances described in question 7 above?

The problem of nuclear waste

15. What is the best estimate you can give now about the prospects of providing an absolute security for nulear waste arising from fast reactors by the use of technologies, that now exist, designed to prevent a hazard to life or health throughout the period when this waste would be dangerous and for how many years would it be dangerous?

Purpose and acceptability of building a full-sized "demonstration" fast reactor

16. What advantages do you see in Britain building its own commercial-sized demonstration fast reactor (CFR1) on the present state of technology, as compared to the alternative possibility of waiting until the state of the art has advanced here and abroad and certain unresolved safety questions are better understood and better remedies have been found in dealing with them?

17. By how much would the potential risk associated with CFR1 exceed the risk we already accept at Dounreay with the prototype fast reactor (PFR)?

18. In your judgment are the risks of proceeding with CFR1 at this stage justified and could you so justify them?

19. As at present advised by what date would you expect that you would be in a position to clear the reference design for a fast reactor to be sited as near our major cities as are the new advanced gas-cooled reactor (AGR) thermal nuclear power stations?

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