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 | | Saturday, 21 July, 2001, 11:04 GMT 12:04 UK Fresh nuclear plant investigation  A second investigation is being carried out An inquiry is underway at a Scottish nuclear plant after the second safety alert in as many weeks. British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) said uranium powder had been washed from a number of corroded drums at a store complex at the Chapelcross plant, near Annan, Dumfries and Galloway. It follows an incident when 24 fuel rods fell from a machine during a routine refuelling operation on a reactor on 5 July. An operation is currently under way to retrieve the rods from within the sealed container. BNFL said the latest incident has been rated as level one - the lowest level on the International Nuclear Event Scale. It said "a small quantity" of uranium powder escaped from corroded drums which had been kept in a store complex in the Chapelcross plant. The company insists that workers were not exposed to the material and the incident posed no risk to the public.
It is understood that a blocked gutter within the store complex, combined with heavy rainfall, had caused water to seep down an internal wall. The storage drums corroded and, as a result, the uranium powder seeped through the wall of the building. The Health and Safety Executive have been informed about the incident and a clean-up operation is currently underway. After the previous incident, Labour MP for Dumfries Russell Brown said he had been assured by plant bosses that there were no signs of increased radioactivity readings, and fuel rods involved in the incident appeared to be undamaged. | | See also:  Top Scotland stories now:  Links to more Scotland stories are at the foot of the page. | |||||||||||||||||||
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