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Published:
September 18, 2006
Hinkley Point gas release 'posed no risk' to people in Burnham-On-Sea
 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.
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