§ Mr. Llew SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement on the emergency declared at the Hunterston B nuclear plant on 27 December. [66426]
§ Mr. DewarIn order to operate their cooling systems all nuclear power stations need access to either the Grid or to their own power sources. As a result of the severe weather that affected the West of Scotland on 26–27 December 1998 connection to all 4 power Grid lines to Hunterston B was lost shortly after midnight. Staff safely shut down both the reactors at Hunterston B. Back-up generators were activated automatically to prevent overheating.
The generators were shut down when the Grid connection was restored. However, they did not restart automatically when the Grid connection was lost for a second time. An on-site emergency was declared early on the morning of 27 December. Management at the station took that decision to ensure that additional technical staffing resources were available to deal with the on-site consequences of the power loss as rapidly as possible. By this time the reactors had been safely shut down for nearly 11 hours. There was no damage to, or release of radioactivity from the plant.
Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspectors are investigating the incident and will report on it in
116Wtheir Quarterly Statement of Nuclear Incidents at Nuclear Installations; andtheir report to the Local Community Liaison Committee.I have asked HSE to send copies of these documents to my hon. Friend when they are published.