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UK Nuclear Safety Warnings hit 12-year high as inspections fall | Nuclear power

Number of official reports documenting safety concerns at UK civilian nuclear facilities, hit This highest level in at least 12 years under conditions decline in inspection, the Keeper can show.

The experts stated news expressed concern about the ability of the regulator to deal with with planned expansion in sector.

BUT total of 456 Incident Notification Forms were submitted to the Authority documenting safety concerns at UK nuclear facilities. for Nuclear regulation (ONR) over 2021, according to information received by the Guardian and investigative journalists Point Source.

it’s 30% higher than 320 reports filed in the entire of 2020 and more how double 213 reports that have been filed in 2018.

nuclear safety warning chart

Reported incidents include physical security issues such as unauthorized people receiving unsupervised access to secure areas, as well as cybersecurity issues such as malware attacks software.

Dr. Paul Dorfman, Chairman of Advisory Group on Nuclear Matters and former secretary of in governmentcommittee to study radiation risks of internal emitters (Cerrie), said operators and the regulator needs to take action to address rise in registered incidents.

” higher amount of The safety issues that we see documented at nuclear facilities are of extreme concern,” he said.

“These numbers seem show relaxation in safety standards when it comes to operation and regulation of sites that can cause great harm to humans and the environment.

“When the stakes are so high, it is important that ONR take all these security incidents seriously, consider why they happened, try to address the relevant issues and reduce the number of of ongoing incidents.

Dorfman added: “The bigger picture raises serious concerns about the technical and human capacity of the ONR to regulate and monitor a potentially very risky industry.

“Especially it concerns in context of Britain’s aging nuclear fleet, and new-build plans in government is an currently pushes.”

Evening: UK plans eight new nuclear reactors will increase energy independence – video

Recent rise in reported security incidents of planned large scale expansion of UK civilian nuclear sector.

Boris Johnson said last month that nuclear power is “coming.” home”When he opened plans for eight new reactors in United Kingdom.

Johnson has set goal of 25% of electricity coming from a nuclear power plant. This means an increase in capacity from 7 GW to 24 GW by 2050, a process that will be monitored new bodyGreat British nuclear power plant.

There has been an increase in 2021 in room of According to data received from the ONR, “moderate” security incidents were reported. using freedom of information legislation.

Over the year total of 42 security incidents have been documented. rated as “moderate”. This is up out of 24 moderate incidents reported in 2020 and is highest number recorded in at least 12 years old.

Moderate is secondis the most severe category and is described by the ONR as an incident in which there was a “significant departure from expected standards”.

rising amount of recorded security incidents occur against the backdrop of decline in room of security checks carried out out regulator.

There are fears that during 2021 the frequency of nuclear safety inspections out ONR may have fallen to its lowest level in at least four years.

Data received in separate freedom of information request shows that in 2021, up until December 17, just Conducted 136 security checks. out according to ONR, down from full-year figure of 144 in 2020 and 169 in 2019.

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Information security inspections are one of the largest decline, with only 40 carried out in 2021 up until December 17, down from 74 over whole of 2020.

Dorfman said this was particularly worrisome given risk of cyber attacks on nuclear infrastructure.

“There is no doubt that nuclear operating in increasingly dangerous and unstable world where is the threat of the number of state-sponsored or non-state cyberattacks is increasing,” he said.

The ONR said in a statement: “We welcome the increase in informed events as our analysis shows that this reflects improvements in awareness and safety culture in the industry. Overwhelming majority of informed events (80-90%) – minor violations of security measures that have been announced in advance us”.

Regulator also said he believes in his engagement with nuclear operators increased over recent years, despite decline in official inspections.

This is added: “The data that we have provided under the terms of freedom of information The law applies only to on- object conformity checks and does not include other evaluation work. This is a separate regulatory expertise that is not presented in data is essential for ensure site security measures are observed with law and includes site visits to strengthen regulatory judgments.”

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Adrian Ovalle
Adrian Ovalle
Adrian is working as the Editor at World Weekly News. He tries to provide our readers with the fastest news from all around the world before anywhere else.

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