Front page headline in "The Guardian" (major UK newspaper), Dec 20: "N-plant cuts put safety at risk".

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Nuclear power station chiefs have been accused by government inspectors of jeopardising safety by shedding staff to cut costs. Leaked British Energy reports reveal that the privatised operator was in dispute with the state-run nuclear installations inspectorate (NII) while a series of incidents repeatedly shut down various of its eight reactors.

An internal company report marked "secret" discloses that the inspectorate had demanded a halt to redundancies, complaining that too many cheap contractors without adequate trainingand skills were being used to replace in-house teams. A second British Energy paper, marked "confidential", details more than a dozen cases (for the 13 weeks from August 16 to Novenmber 14), including fires and a hydrogen coolant leak, that triggered shutdowns or forced managers to switch off reactors. A reactor at the Hunterson plant automatically shut down on November 9 when a gear motor caught fire.

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A senior electricity industry source claimed: "It's only a matter of time before something serious happens if we carry on like this.

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-- Risteard Mac Thomais (uachtaran@ireland.com), December 21, 1999