Accident at Power Plant; Three Injured at Heysham 1
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Heysham 1 is a nuclear power plant, located in Lancashire, England and owned by EDF Energy. At 10:30pm on Monday, there was an accidental steam release, causing a blast of high temperature to escape. This unfortunately injured three people. According to reports, the subsequent injuries include: burns, a broken hip, and an injured back. Note that each victim was only afflicted with one of the above.
Two of these people were sent to Royal Preston Hospital (Lancashire’s major trauma unit), while the third person was admitted to Wythenshawe Hospital in Manchester. No civilians were injured; all three are employees of EDF Energy. It has also been stated that all three were conscious and capable of speech when being transported to the hospital.
EDF have gone on record to say that the incident did not compromise public safety as it wasn’t a part of the nuclear process. They also had a spokeswoman come out to clarify that the incident posed no threat to the public and that they had the situation under control. Adding on that there would be an investigation into the matter as EDF’s biggest priority is safety. She also relayed her support to the families of the casualties. It was also made clear that EDF is treating the situation with utmost seriousness, as this isn’t a common occurrence and also because three people were injured.
As reported by the Lancashire Post, five fire crews were on the scene thanks to the automatic emergency alarm going off. These crews went on to stay at Heysham 1 for the next 2 hours as a precautionary measure. Prior to Monday’s incident, the last time there was any trouble at Heysham 1 was in 2015. There was a CO2 leak, though there was no imminent danger caused by it.
The Office for Nuclear Regulation also issued a statement. Their spokesperson shared that they were aware of the incident that took place at Heysham 1 on November 19th and relayed concern for the injured parties. Going on to add that as a regulatory body they will be conducting their own investigation in accordance with standard procedure. This investigation will be in addition to EDF’s own separate one. They concluded their statement by saying that it would be inappropriate to say anything more due to the on-going enquiries being at an extremely early stage.