Vol. 533 No. 3
40 Mr. Penrose asked the Minister for Public Enterprise if she has received reports from the United Kingdom health and safety executive's nuclear installations inspectorate on safety procedures at the Thorp Reprocessing Plant where safety alarms were effectively ignored during an incident in January 2001; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8700/01]
The failure of staff to respond to alarm signals in the Sellafield complex is always a matter of serious concern to me as it highlights a potential risk in such a plant. The RPII was informed by the nuclear installations inspectorate of the UK health and safety execu tive that on 26 January 2001, there was an inadvertent blocking of the ventilation system of the liquid high level radioactive waste storage tanks serving both the Magnox and Thorp plants. The BNFL staff failed to respond to the alarm signals indicating the blockage, which occurred during the course of modification work. The NII has directed BNFL to suspend the modification work and the investigation into the incident is still ongoing. I have asked the RPII to maintain contact as the investigation progresses and to let me know the outcome.
