One person was injured and scores of staff were evacuated from Hinkley Point power station near Burnham-On-Sea when three tonnes of Carbon Dioxide escaped during an incident last week.
But Martin Pearce, spokesman for British Energy, told Burnham-On-Sea.com on Monday (September 18th) that local people should not be worried as there had never been any risk to the public during the incident.
“A safety relief valve on the carbon dioxide plant lifted, releasing a quantity of clean, non-radioactive carbon dioxide gas. The valve quickly re-seated and the release of gas stopped. Carbon Dioxide would pose no safety hazard to the general public. Following dispersal into air, it is not a health risk,” he said.
“As a precaution, a site muster was completed and all staff accounted for. A person was injured during the incident and was treated at the station medical centre by fully qualified occupational health staff. I am pleased to say his injuries were not serious enough to require offsite treatment.”
“Both reactors continued operating safely throughout. As a result of the gas release, the carbon dioxide plant is currently unavailable. One half of the plant is affected by this event. We will continue to investigate the cause of the release.”
Meanwhile, Mr Pearce also confirmed that the reactor at the station had been switched off for four days last week after a national grid substation failed.
“This was an unplanned outage that was quite disruptive, but we took the opportunity to do some additional maintenance work,” he told Burnham-On-Sea.com.
RELATED LINKS:
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Hinkley Point gets all-clear after Environment Agency radiation checks
