CAMPAIGNERS from Stop Hinkley demonstrated outside Hinkley C last week ask why a report into a silo collapse at the plant has not been filed six months after the incident.

On June 10 the silo, which contained ground-granulated blast furnace slag, partially collapsed creating a huge dust cloud at the nuclear power plant but luckily no one was injured.

An investigation was launched into the incident by EDF and a report was due to be submitted this year.

But so far no report has been sent to the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR).

In protest, six members of Stop Hinkley held up placards outside the power station on Thursday (December 10) to ask EDF why no report about the incident has been submitted.

Roy Pumfrey, a campaigner for Stop Hinkley, said: “When is a serious industrial accident not worthy of a formal investigation by an independent body? “Apparently, when a large silo collapses at Hinkley Point C depositing hundreds of tonnes of ground slag with such force that local residents think the noise is an explosion, it doesn’t qualify.

“The regulator for the HPC build appears content with the length of time EDF is taking to come up with a report of what they think happened. “Obviously, it takes time to find all the bits of metal that the silo disintegrated into, analyse them for faults and come up with a hypothesis for what happened.

“This incident matters to people living in the vicinity of HPC because accidents happen on nuclear sites.

“When a plane crashes, it’s an independent organisation that investigates, not the airline.

“Yet EDF is ‘marking its own homework’ at HPC and the regulator seems too compliant in its attitude to ensure a rigorous oversight of the investigation.

“If EDF had explained the process it was following to the local community, instead of trying to brush the dust under the carpet by dismissing the ground slag as ‘as harmless as talcum powder’, it would have been more reassuring.

“Although no one was hurt, EDF got lucky this time.

“We need more transparency from EDF and more rigour from the regulator.”

But a spokesperson for Hinkley Point C said it is continuing to work with its construction partner, BYLOR, to complete a joint investigation into the incident in consultation with the silo’s manufacturer.

“The results of the investigation are being shared with the independent regulator and its findings will be used to benefit the wider construction industry,” the Hinkley C spokesperson said.

“We are determined to make the construction industry as safe as possible and the opportunity for learning will not be lost.”

A spokesperson for ONR added: “We recognise that laboratory testing of the failed components can be a time consuming process, so we are comfortable with a short delay in the submission of the report.

“Once ONR has received the final report from NNB GenCo we will consider it along with our own independent findings to inform our regulatory response.”