§ Mr. BakerTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if she will list the occasions since 1980 when nuclear reactors have been shut down for safety reasons, 357W indicating in each case the date of shut down, the reason for the shut down and the date on which power generation recommenced. [24775]
§ Mr. Battle[holding answer 22 January 1998]: Information on the occasions since 1980 when civil nuclear reactors have been shut down for safety reasons, their dates and reasons for shut down and the dates when power generation recommenced is not recorded centrally. To provide the information requested for 35 currently operating civil power reactors in England and Wales and Scotland and nine which are now under-going decommissioning over a 18 year period could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
In addition to outages ie. a shutdown for re-fuelling, maintenance and repair on a schedule agreed by the regulator—the Health and Safety Executive's Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII)—there are other occasions when reactors have to shut down ("trip"). The substantial in-built redundancy of safety systems at all nuclear generating sites ensure a trip if there is a fault in one of the many back-up systems on the reactor. Also, a significant proportion of the trips are not related to the safety of the reactor, but to failure in the ancillary equipment for example turbines or National Grid transmission faults.
However, any incidents of significance or potential significance for the health and safety of the workforce or the public at all UK civil nuclear installations, including nuclear electricity generating sites, are reported in the Health and Safety Executive's "Quarterly Statement of Incidents at Nuclear Installations" published since 1976. Copies of the most recent statements are available in the Library of the House. I am asking HSE to ensure copies of all statements, dating back to 1976, are placed there.
In addition, civil nuclear operators are also required by their nuclear site licence conditions to keep records of all incidents, events and other deviations from normal operations, thee are reviewed carefully by the NII. Since 1987, details of all such incidents have also been published in site newsletters, copies of which are circulated to Local Members of Parliament, Local Liaison Committees, the local media and to the Library of the House.