Secret report reveals catalogue of atomic leaks

London: The scale of safety problems inside Britain's nuclear power stations has been revealed for the first time in a secret report obtained by the Observer that shows more than 1,750 leaks, breakdowns or other "events" over the past seven years.

The damning document, written by the government's chief nuclear inspector, Mike Weightman, and released under the Freedom of Information Act, raises serious questions about the dangers of expanding the industry with a new generation of atomic plants.

And it came as the managers of the UK's biggest plant, Sellafield, admitted they had finally halted a radioactive leak that many believe has been going on for 50 years.

The report discloses that between 2001 and 2008 there were 1,767 safety incidents across all of Britain's nuclear plants.

About half were subsequently judged by inspectors to have been serious enough "to have had the potential to challenge a nuclear safety system."

They were "across all areas of existing nuclear plants says Weightman, chief inspector of the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII).

In an accident at Sizewell A in Suffolk in January 2007, cooling water leaked from a pond containing highly radioactive spent fuel.

The operator was not prosecuted for breaching safety rules, according to the NII's official investigation, partly because NII resources were "stretched".

In May 2007 a manhole at Dounreay in northern Scotland was found to be contaminated with plutonium. A series of other incidents occurred at Sellafield, including a fault with a trap door meant to provide protection from highly radioactive waste in September 2008, and the contamination of five workers at a plutonium fuel plant in January 2007.

A spokesman for Sellafield confirmed on Saturday night it had halted the seeping of liquid from a crack in one of four waste tanks that used to process effluent before it was discharged into the Irish Sea.

In January, Weightman sent a 37-page report to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Marked "restricted", it lays bare the crisis that is afflicting the regulation of the British nuclear industry.

The NII admits to being 26 inspectors short of the 192 it needs to regulate existing facilities.

The HSE said on Saturday night the NII was continuing to "effectively fulfil its regulatory duties" and was increasing the number of inspectors and bringing in appropriately experienced technical support contractors to increase regulatory resources.

But John McNamara, the spokesman for the 175-member Nuclear Industry Association, still argues that the industry's safety record is "second to none".