Companies fined over 'nuclear scare'

Fears of an explosion in 1999

Two companies have been fined over an experiment which threatened to explode at a nuclear and chemical research laboratory near Didcot in Oxfordshire.

The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) was fined £4,000 for breaking health and safety regulations.

AEA Technology plc, of Harwell, Didcot, Oxfordshire, was also fined the same amount in the joint prosecution at Oxford Crown Court.

Both organisations were also ordered to pay costs of £57,800 each.

Potentially explosive

Pleas of not guilty to failing to ensure the safety of employees and non-employees were accepted by the court.

The army's bomb squad was called to the UKAEA's Harwell lab in September 1999 after an experiment to recover silver from a chemical compound went wrong, and the companies feared explosion.

Two army officers were later awarded the George Medal for their bravery in dealing with a potentially explosive compound.

Both the UKAEA and AEA Technology pleaded guilty to a charge of failing to make a suitable and sufficient risk assessment contrary to the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1992.

Safety first

In mitigation the court was told that scientists and experts investigating the incident could not agree on the risk of explosion following the incident in room B220 at the Harwell site.

Welcoming the decision John Wilkins, UKAEA's head of site at Harwell, said: "I am very pleased with the fine and pleased that the Health and Safety Executive dropped the serious safety charges against us.

"Although with hindsight there was no real danger to the public, we put safety first on September 9, 1999 by calling in the emergency services. We regret the inconvenience this caused to our friends and neighbours in the local community."

Mr Wilkins added however: "We recognise that in this case our monitoring of AEA Technology could have been more comprehensive.

"But we could not accept the implications of the major charges brought by the Health and Safety Executive, that our actions put people at risk.

"All the evidence we obtained from independent experts confirmed there was no danger."

AEA Technology was a tenant on the site, owned by the UKAEA, at the time of the incident.

The company was part of the UKAEA before being hived off and privatised in 1996.