Oldbury Power Station has admitted it is releasing radioactivity into the air to save making filters dirty. The operators of Oldbury Power Station say the reason they are releasing radioactivity into the air is because they do not want the problem of radioactive filters.

Filters should be fitted to protect local residents. We asked the operators of Oldbury power station why no filters are fitted to the incinerator chimney.

Alan Pinder said, “Oldbury has been putting local residents at risk for years by not fitting a filter to this chimney. We were astonished to hear that the reason was to avoid contaminating the filters. BNG told us that the filters would become radioactive waste that would have to be safely disposed of. The whole purpose of filtering is to collect radioactive material in the filters. The idea is to avoid releasing it into the environment so we don't have to breathe it. We want to make the filters dirty so that our lungs stay clean.”

Very slightly radioactive smoke and gases are released from the chimney of the incinerator at Oldbury. The incinerator is routinely used to burn low level radioactive waste from the power station. There has never been a filter fitted to trap the radioactivity going up the chimney.

The incinerator will be used for the next 20 years until the decommissioning of the power station is complete. The incinerator is used to burn slightly contaminated waste such as rubber gloves used to handle radioactive material. Although the levels of radioactivity are very low, environmental groups believe cancers can be caused by much lower levels than is accepted by the regulators.

Alan Pinder

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