HC Deb 14 July 1986 vol 101 cc385-6W
Mr. Corbyn

asked the Secretary of State for Energy if he will list in tabular form the latest information he has available on the officially reported first acknowledgement of the accidents that took place at (a) Windscale plutonium pile in 1957, (b) Kyshtym nuclear facility in the Soviet Union in 1957, (c) Windscale Head-End reprocessing plant in 1973, (d) Windscale nuclear liquor storage tank in 1978, (e) Three Mile Island PWR nuclear power station in the United States in 1979 and (f) the Chernobyl nuclear plant in 1986.

Mr. Goodlad

The information is as follows:

  1. (a)The UKAEU issued a public statement on 11 October 1957;
  2. (b) The Soviet Union has never acknowledged an accident at Kyshtym;
  3. (c) The incident at BNFL. Windscale on 26 September 1973 was reported to the Nil within 24 hours and was later the subject of a press statement;
  4. (d) The incident at the Windscale magnox cladding storage silo on 31 October 1978 was reported to the NII within 24 hours and details were later published in the quarterly report of the Health and Safety Executive;
  5. (e) The President's commission on the accident at Three Mile Island reported that local authorities and the media were informed of problems at the plant on 28 March 1979;
  6. (f) The first official acknowledgement by the Soviet Government of the accident at Chernobyl was given on 28 April.

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