The Chernobyl Accident and its Implications for the United Kingdom Watt Committee Report Number 19 Members of The Watt Committee on Energy Working Group on the Chernobyl Accident and its Implications for the United Kingdom This report has been compiled by the Working Group on the Chernobyl Accident and its Implications for the United Kingdom. The members of the Working Group were: N.G.Worley (Chairman) G.Lewis Dr F.R.Allen Dr. G.K.C.Pardoe F.J.L.Bindon P.D.Potter R.Bulloch Dr F.B.Smith Prof. A.Charlesby Prof. G.N.Walton Dr D.R.Cope J.G.Mordue (Secretary) Prof. P.M.S.Jones G.F.Oliver (Information Officer) Dr J.D.Lewins The Chernobyl Accident and its Implications for the United Kingdom Edited by NORMAN WORLEY C Eng, BSc (Eng) (Chem Eng) Lond, ACGI, M Inst of Energy Deputy Chairman of The Watt Committee on Energy Chairman of the Working Group on the Chernobyl Accident and its Implications for the United Kingdom appointed by The Watt Committee on Energy and JEFFERY LEWINS MA, MSc, PhD, DSc (Lond), C Eng, PPINucE, F Am Nuc S Lecturer in Nuclear Engineering at the University of Cambridge Report Number 19 Published on behalf of THE WATT COMMITTEE ON ENERGY by ELSEVIER APPLIED SCIENCE PUBLISHERS LONDON and NEW YORK ELSEVIER SCIENCE PUBLISHERS LTD Crown House, Linton Road, Barking, Essex IG11 8JU, England This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003. Sole Distributor in the USA and Canada ELSEVIER SCIENCE PUBLISHING CO., INC. 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA WITH 14 TABLES AND 35 ILLUSTRATIONS © 1988 THE WATT COMMITTEE ON ENERGY Savoy Hill House, Savoy Hill, London WC2R 0BU British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data The Chernobyl accident and its implications for the United Kingdom.—(Watt Committee report; no. 19). 1. Ukraine. Chernobyl. Nuclear power stations. Accidents, 1986 I. Worley, Norman G. II. Lewins, Jeffery D. 1930– III. Watt Committee on Energy IV. Series 363.1’79 ISBN 0-203-21644-X Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-27264-1 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 1-85166-219-7 (Print Edition) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DatA The Chernobyl accident and its implications for the United Kingdom/ edited by Norman G.Worley and Jeffery D.Lewins. p. cm.—(Watt Committee report; no. 19) “This report has been compiled by the Working Group on the Chernobyl Accident and its Implications for the United Kingdom”— P. “Published on behalf of the Watt Committee on Energy by Elsevier Applied Science Publishers.” ISBN 1-85166-219-7 1. Nuclear power plants—Government policy—Great Britain. 2. Nuclear power plants—Accidents—Environmental aspects. 3. Chernobyl Nuclear Accident. Chernobyl. Ukraine, 1986. I. Worley, Norman G. II. Lewins, Jeffery D. III. Working Group on the Chernobyl Accident and its Implications for the United Kingdom. IV. Series. HD9698.G72C47 1988 363.1’79–dc19 88–7286 CIP The views expressed in this Report are those of the authors of the papers and contributors to the discussion individually and not necessarily those of their institutions or companies or of The Watt Committee on Energy. No responsibility is assumed by the Publisher for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions or ideas contained in the material herein. Special regulations for readers in the USA This publication has been registered with the Copyright Clearance Center Inc. (CCC), Salem, Massachusetts. Information can be obtained from the CCC about conditions under which photocopies of parts of this publication may be made in the USA. All other copyright questions, including photocopying outside the USA, should be referred to the publisher. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Foreword There can have been few occasions when an accident that Report, explained how I had been made Chairman to a major work of engineering of any kind was of of the Working Group that produced it. Briefly such immediate concern to governments and peoples paraphrased, our hope was that we had succinctly throughout the world as was the nuclear power-plant described the technology and stated the main issues in accident at Chernobyl. The collapse of a bridge or a such a way that the reader, whether he supported or fire in a coal mine, for example, may win headlines in opposed nuclear power when he began to read, would many countries and cause more immediate casualties, have a better understanding when he finished. We were but neither civil accidents like these nor natural therefore in a good position, two years later, to take disasters like earthquakes and famines are likely to be part in the reassessment of nuclear power that was major stories everywhere for so long. For the ordinary bound to result from the Chernobyl accident. man and woman, nuclear power is incomprehensible This did not mean, of course, that we wished to and horrifying, even if it is possible to distinguish it start from scratch in reconsidering every aspect of civil from the nuclear weapons issue; even for professionally nuclear power, even if our resources had been qualified readers, some half million of whom, in the sufficient. We appointed a new working group, United Kingdom, are represented by the professional including some members of the previous group, and institutions constituting The Watt Committee on our instructions to it, narrow in scope but requiring Energy, understanding is often difficult and opinions thorough investigation, were to consider the range right through the spectrum from enthusiasm for implications of the Chernobyl accident for the United nuclear power to outright opposition. Kingdom. Two years later, a huge volume of The Watt Committee Executive, when it met soon information has been made available (some vital, some after the accident occurred in April 1986, saw at once marginally relevant) and the arguments have been that the implications of what had happened, both exhaustively ventilated. Our qualification for adding immediately and over a period of perhaps years to to the mountains of paper (not to mention other media come, would be far-reaching: perhaps more so because coverage) is that the members of our group, and of the possible benefits and dangers of nuclear power the Watt Committee as a whole, include both those were already a matter of fierce public controversy, in who are expert in the many relevant specialist the United Kingdom as in many other advanced disciplines and those who, having no previous countries, and it was appreciated that important connections with the nuclear industry, are familiar with national decisions were being made and could be the needs of public debate. The principal objective of affected. The importance of these decisions was not the Watt Committee is to promote the discussion of limited to the few thousands who would construct a questions concerning energy for the benefit of the nuclear power station, work in it and live near it; they public at large, bringing together, in an impartial would have an impact on the technological base, and forum, those with professional knowledge from a wide therefore on the economic prosperity, of the whole variety of backgrounds; and the Chernobyl accident country, and on the consumers of energy—specifically and its implications, considered as a subject for study of electric power which, in the United Kingdom, means by one of our specialist groups, presents the need for virtually everybody; and these effects will be with us this approach particularly acutely. for as long as anyone can foresee. The members of the Working Group are listed The attitude of The Watt Committee on Energy to elsewhere in this Report. On behalf of The Watt the civil nuclear power question was stated in a Report Committee on Energy, I am grateful to them all, and entitled Nuclear Energy: a Professional Assessment, can only mention here the outstanding importance of published in March 1984. The then Chairman of the Norman Worley’s role as its Chairman. The study could Watt Committee, Dr Jack Chesters, in his foreword to not have been undertaken (or not on anything like this v vi Foreword scale) without the financial support of the Central The complexity of life in a modern trading nation is Electricity Generating Board, the South of Scotland beyond the appreciation of most of its citizens, and the Electricity Board, British Nuclear Fuels plc, the United specific individual effects of even such a major event are Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority and the National small by the time they have ramified into every home Nuclear Corporation, which was given on the condition, and work place in the land. Nevertheless, there are clearly understood, that the Watt Committee was free comparatively small numbers of people, mainly in limited to conduct the study as it wished and reach whatever areas, for whom the direct effects of Chernobyl are still conclusions seemed appropriate. I must also important, and the long-run indirect effects are important acknowledge the willingness of these and other for almost everyone. What these effects are, and what organisations to provide us with any information that decisions are required, is clarified, I hope, in this Report. we asked for, including the opportunity of visiting nuclear establishments. Our thanks are due to the many G.K.C.PARDOE individuals in these organisations who helped us. Chairman, The Watt Committee on Energy Contents List of the Chernobyl accident Working Group members ii Foreword G.K.C.PARDOE v Background NORMAN WORLEY ix Section 1 Introduction NORMAN WORLEY 1 1.1 General description of a nuclear power system 1 1.2 Fuel meltdown incidents 4 1.3 Energy in the Soviet Union 6 Section 2 The design of the Chernobyl Unit 4 reactor PETER POTTER 9 Section 3 Description of the Chernobyl accident FRANK ALLEN 19 Section 4 The radioactive release from Chernobyl and its effects BARRY SMITH and ARTHUR CHARLESBY 25 Section 5 Accident management in the USSR and the United Kingdom GLYNNE LEWIS 35 Section 6 United Kingdom and USSR reactor types JEFFERY LEWINS 47 Section 7 Reactor operation and operator training in the United Kingdom JOHN BINDON 61 Section 8 International dimensions of the implications of the Chernobyl accident for the United Kingdom DAVID COPE 71 Section 9 Comments, recommendations and conclusions 89 Appendices 1. Glossary of terms 101 2. Units of measurement 104 3. Summary of significant dates and timing relevant to the Chernobyl accident 105 vii viii Contents 4. Nuclear safety in the Soviet Union From ‘Nuclear Power in the Soviet Union’ by B.A.Semenov—June 1983 International Atomic Energy Agency Bulletin (Vol. 25, No. 2) 110 5. Chemical reaction aspects of the Chernobyl accident—Gilbert Walton, Jeffery Lewins and Norman Worley 112 6. The Chernobyl accident trial An article published in The Independent on 30 July 1987—Anthony Barber of Reuters 114 7. Continuing radiation leakage from Chernobyl An article released by Reuters, Moscow, 4 December 1987 116 8. International aspects— Norman Worley 117 including: Learned societies European organisations Organisations for economic co-operation and development The International Atomic Energy Agency Recommendations for the IAEA 9. The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate 121 10. Energy casualties 123 11. Presentations to the Working Group on the Chernobyl accident A. Presentation on Inherently Safe Reactors 124 Given on 11 February 1987 by Michael Hayns, Head of Nuclear Safety, Technology Branch, Safety and Reliability Directorate, UK Atomic Energy Authority B. Presentation on The Chernobyl Accident and its Consequences’ 125 Given on 1 April 1987 by John Gittus, Director, Safety and Reliability Directorate, UK Atomic Energy Authority 12. Visits made by the Watt Committee Working Group on the Chernobyl accident A. Visit to Dungeness ‘A’ Magnox station —David Cope 126 B. Visit to the CEGB’s Oldbury-on-Severn Nuclear Power Training Centre—John Bindon 127 C. Visit to Hinkley Point ‘B’ AGR station —Glynne Lewis 130 Contents ix D. Visit to the Atomic Energy Establish- ment Winfrith SGHWR station— Frank Allen 133 E. Visit to Hunterston ‘A’ nuclear power station to attend an emergency exercise—Glynne Lewis 135 The Watt Committee on Energy: Objectives, Histori- cal Background and Current Programme 139 Member Institutions of The Watt Committee on Energy 141 Watt Committee Reports 142 Index 143