Rising tides threaten ageing nuclear stations

Government scientists and experts in the nuclear industry are preparing for a doomsday scenario caused by rising tides around Britain's ageing atomic power stations.

As British Nuclear Fuels prepares to close down some of the oldest reactors, nuclear engineers are worried that abandoned plants will be inundated by the sea. The nuclear waste discharged in a flood would contaminate much of the coastline for decades to come.

Consultant nuclear engineer John Large, who advises central government and local authorities about safety issues, told The Observer : 'This is a catastrophe waiting to happen. Over the next 100 years there will be significant sea rises and no one has prepared for this.

'Conventional sea defences are not designed to withstand the combination of a rise in the sea level, an increase in inclement weather and bouts of flash flooding.'

All but one of Britain's nuclear plants is on the coast and many were intentionally sited on low-lying ground to give access to sea water for cooling without the need for expensive pumping systems. But even the designers of Britain's newest nuclear power station, commissioned at Sizewell in East Anglia in 1994, did not consider the effects of global warming.

Last week The Observer revealed that Britain's coastline is being eroded at a rate that could lead sea levels to rise by up to 60 centimetres during the next 50 years.

The areas predicted to be underwater by 2025 by Dr Edward Hill of the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory coincide with key nuclear installations.

Hinkley Point on the Somerset levels, Dungeness and Sizewell in the South East, and the BNFL reprocessing plant at Sellafield would all be affected.

An emergency flood caused by global warming is a nightmare scenario associated with the older generation of Magnox reactors.

The Government has had to decommission plants at Hunterston in Scotland, Trawsfynydd in North Wales and Berkeley in Gloucestershire after inspectors raised concerns about safety issues. Bradwell in Essex and Hinkley Point in Somerset are to be closed for safety checks.

Scientists are also worried about the build-up of 'Wigner energy', a by-product of the nuclear reaction that can lead to the ignition of the graphite core.

Even after decommissioning, plants are to be be left as radioactive hulks for 150 years before being dismantled, by which time sea levels could have risen by a metre.

BNFL is so worried about older power stations built between 1956 and 1971 that it has called emergency meetings between its scientists, local campaign groups and anti-nuclear organisations.

Greenpeace will launch a campaign in spring to coincide with public consultation by the Environment Agency on the future of Magnox stations. Campaigners may focus on Hinkley Point A station in Somerset, shut since last autumn after a radioactive leak contaminated the Severn estuary. Campaigners want Hinkley A to be closed altogether, but BNFL hopes to reopen the plant in April after repairing the reactor and getting safety clearance from the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate. However, BNFL apparently has contingency plans for closure.

The Stop Hinkley campaign is spearheaded by Jim Duffy, an anti-nuclear activist, and his wife Karalina Matsukevich, who grew up near Chernobyl in Ukraine, the site of the world's worst nuclear accident in 1986.

Matsukevich was 18 at the time and is now on the British cancer register as a result of ovarian and thyroid cysts caused by radiation from the plant. She lives in West Quantoxhead, 10 miles from Hinkley Point, and fears a similar accident here if BNFL reopens the reactors.

'It's a sad irony for me,' she told The Observer , 'I know too well what's it's like when an accident happens and it's terrible. I am always conscious of the presence of Hinkley Point and I am scared to take my daughter to the beach.'

A spokeswoman for the Environment Agency said the report on the consultation over the Magnox stations would be published at the end of the year after a series of public meetings. She added that global warming was a serious issue and the agency had allowed for a six-millimetre annual rise in sea levels in its plans for sea defences.

Colin Bennett, of BNFL Magnox Generation, said no special preparation had been made to protect decommissioned reactors from flooding and added that sea water was already used in the cooling process.

'In the highly unlikely event that water got into a plant,' he said, 'the sea water itself would be an economic loss, but there would be no major safety issues.'