The UK must install a filter for a new reactor. Any containment leak would devastate the area.

Any containment leak would effect fisheries as well. Installing a filter will not stop the construction or use of the new reactor. The cost is not prohibitive.

March 16, 2015
By Mark Leftly

...Mr Gundersen told The Independent that he is concerned by designs for three reactors proposed for a new civil nuclear plant in Cumbria. A nuclear engineering graduate by background, Mr Gunderson believes that the AP1000, designed by the US-based giant Westinghouse, is susceptible to leaks. The reactor has been selected for the proposed £10bn Moorside plant, a Toshiba-GDF Suez joint venture that will power six million homes. It is going through an approval process with the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR).


Mr Gundersen, who visited the Sellafield nuclear facility in Cumbria last week, warned that any leak would be like “Chernobyl on steroids”, referring to the 1986 nuclear disaster that killed 28 workers within four months. He passed on some of these fears to MPs at an event in Parliament during his visit to the UK.

He said: “Evacuation of Moorside would have to be up to 50 miles. You could put a filter on the top of the AP1000 to trap the gases – that would cost about $100m, which is small potatoes.

“If this leaks it would be a leak worse than the one at Fukushima. Historically, there have been 66 containment leaks around the world.”...

There are international standards. I might mention the climate has effected the UK and Europe's weather. This region of the world has experienced extremely severe weather including hurricanes, record rainfall, flooding and icing and an occasional tornado. There are many reasons the safety of a filter to any reactor is more important than ever before.

2.16. In operational states (click here) and in accident conditions, the containment structures contribute to the protection of plant personnel and the public from undue exposure due to direct radiation from radioactive material contained thin the containment and containment systems. Dose limits and dose constraints as well as the application of the ‘as low as reasonably achievable principle (for the optimization of radiation protection) should be included in the design basis of the structures [1,9, 10]. The composition and thickness of the concrete, steel and other structural materials should be such as to ensure that the dose limits and dose constraint for operators and the public are not exceeded in operational states or in the accident conditions that are considered in the design.

Every possible means are to be employed to protect the operators and the public from any leaks. The filter supplies a safeguard that is not met by design of the reactor alone. There is every reason to believe if the UK does not adopt the standard for their new reactors they will be in violation of these standards.