§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the occasions since 1980 when nuclear reactors have been shut down for safety reasons, indicating in each case the date of shut down, the reason for the shut down and the date on which power generation recommenced. [24754]
§ Mr. Spellar[holding answer 22 January 1998]: Naval nuclear propulsion plant is designed with significant redundancy in the protection system to ensure that the reactor is shut down safely in the event of a fault. Naval nuclear plant operators are trained to shut down plant early to investigate possible defects. Reactors have therefore been shut down on some 500 occasions since 1980 for precautionary defect investigations. It would be incorrect, however, to ascribe these shutdowns specifically to safety reasons.
Availability is a major factor in the design of naval nuclear propulsion plant. On all occasions following reactor shutdown at sea it has been possible to resume reactor operation safely within a few hours. Since 1980, all submarines have been able to return safely to harbour under nuclear power.