British officials: Nuclear plant is safe

By SARAH HALL

The Guardian

LONDON --- Britain's key nuclear warheads factory was at the center of controversy Sunday after it admitted to more than 100 breaches of safety in the past year but denied the public ever had been put at risk.

The director of communications at the Atomic Weapons Establishment in Aldermaston, Berkshire, branded claims that only luck had prevented an accident worse than that in Japan as "irresponsible scaremongering."

Graeme Hammond added: "If the situation had been one-tenth as bad as it has been purported, we would have been shut down immediately."

Aldermaston's director of safety, John Crofts, insisted: "I am not denying any of these incidents took place --- and I'm not trying to give the impression they're trivial --- but claims we have been on the brink of a nuclear crisis are a gross exaggeration.

"I live down the road with my wife and five children and I wouldn't do so if I thought there were any risk. I give you my personal assurance, Aldermaston is safe."

The plant's emphatic denials came after the Observer newspaper published details of a leaked report highlighting more than 100 dangerous accidents, breakdowns in safety procedures and instances of environmental contamination since September 1998.

Among these were eight breaches of the "criticality" rules --- in place to ensure that too much uranium or plutonium doesn't collect together and trigger nuclear fission, as happened in Japan --- and eight instances of environmental contamination outside the site.

There were also eight occasions when materials --- including plutonium --- were incorrectly packaged or labeled, and 19 highly serious health and safety incidents, including all firefighting pumping appliances being unfit for service.

Some of the most serious breaches included part of the system to protect the factory from a lightning strike that could trigger a nuclear explosion being "locked off and fuses removed"; a power failure leading to "widespread disruption" after emergency generators failed; and an electrician using metal equipment which could have sparked an explosion in "close proximity to explosive powder."

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