Revealed: the unreported nuclear accident
Updated on 11 June 2009
A disaster narrowly avoided, a danger only spotted by chance - yet the company involved faces no prosecution. Channel 4 News tells the untold story of Sizewell A, one Britain's older nuclear power plants.
These are details that, but for a Freedom of Information request, would have remained secret.
Two years ago, a burst pipe inside the Sizewell A station led to a huge leak from the pond used to cool thousands of nuclear fuel rods.
Sizewell lies in Suffolk, on the East coast of England. If the nuclear fuel rods had caught fire, the resulting radioactive plume could have landed on villages from Southwold and Dunwich in the North, to Thorpeness and Aldburgh in the South, and inland to Leiston and Saxmundum.
Sizewell Q&A: the expert's view
Channel 4 News speaks to nuclear engineer, John Large, who explains the significance of the Sizewell A accident.
Mike Weightman Chief Inspector of the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate speaks to Jon Snow.
