OLDBURY nuclear power station, on the Severn estuary north of Bristol, has a 30-year-old Magnox reactor and will soon to be one of only two of its kind left in Britain.

It suffers from the UK's worst reactor core problems. It is estimated that the graphite mass surrounding the core has been depleted by anything ranging from 17 to 48 per cent.

This means that the safety factor of the reactor has decreased and that the output from the reactor has also decreased by ten per cent.

Some of its other problems are:

l Like Chernobyl, it has no secondary containment to trap any accidental release of nuclear material.

l Subsidence has occurred at the plant with slippage of 18 inches since it was built.

l It discharges an increasing amount of radioactive tritium gas linked to stillbirths and leukaemia into the air.

l Its incinerator, which burns low level radioactive waste, has no filters to remove solid waste particles which can travel 25 miles down wind to reach places such as Bath, Bradford, most of North Wiltshire and Stroud.

Is British Nuclear Fuel spending time and money improving its safety?

On the contrary, it is proposing to change the fuel to a uranium oxide Magrox which requires twice the temperature and twice the coolant pressure.

The new fuel would of course increase the output. When asked about the prospect of using this fuel in a similar reactor (Hinkley A), BNFL replied that it would be like "petrol in a diesel engine completely unsuitable."

If you wish to know more you can question the concerned experts at the public meeting today at 7.45pm in St Mark's Community Hall, St Mark's Road, Bath, or write to Mr L Williams, Nuclear Installation Inspectorate, Rose Court, 2 Southwark Bridge, London, SE1 9HS.

Coun Derek Quinn

Green Party

Calne Town Council