HC Deb 18 October 1993 vol 230 cc162-3W
Mr. Llew Smith

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will make a statement on the leak of radioactive sulphur 35 from the Wylfa nuclear plant on 31 July andl 1 August.

Mr. Gwilym Jones

Sulphur-35 was released to the atmosphere on 2 August 1993 during shutdown of reactor 1 following equipment failure during refuelling on 31 July. The release was in excess of the weekly authorised limit and was graded as a category 1 incident on the international nuclear event scale—anomaly beyond the authorised operating regime.

The authorising departments considered the release to have resulted in negligible off-site consequences and monitoring of foodstuffs found no activity above European Commission maximum permitted levels. The authorising departments are conducting an extensive investigation into the incident.