US nuclear plant was close to disaster

The safety of ageing nuclear reactors dotted across the United States has been thrown into doubt by the discovery of severe corrosion at a plant in Ohio that could have triggered a massive failure.

The alarm was sounded after engineers discovered acid had eaten a hole almost all the way through the six-inch thick lid of the 25-year-old Davis-Besse reactor outside Toledo. All that was left to hold back cooling water contained at 2,200lbs of pressure was a skin of stainless steel.

All 68 plants in the US that are of similar design have been ordered by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), to inspect their lids as soon as possible. Already, electricity and natural gas prices have started to rise as the industry ponders the possibility that many plants may have to shut down.

The commission is especially concerned about six reactors that share the same design as the Ohio plant. Among them is the Three Mile Island reactor in Pennsylvania, which suffered a near-catastrophic failure in 1979. Three Mile Island is owned by Amergen, which is 50 per cent owned by British Energy plc.