31/10/2016 Inside Out West

We are told it is safe, but cracks are appearing in the ageing

If you can't get control rods down, you can't control

the temperature inside the reactor and you are heading for acchdents

Did the rolling hills of Solerset inspire one of our nation's

He talks about the river and the fountains bursting forth.

And if you go down there, the feeling of power in the water

I feel really comes through in Kubla Khan.

And Angela Rippon is in The Cotswolds to find out

if old-fashioned crafts can flourish in our throwaway culture.

I take work home, I work till 11 at night.

But I actually wouldn't want it any other way.

The new nuclear power station at Hinkley point is due to start

Until then the company that owns the existing reactors

But we have been hearing concerns about the state of the power

station, which is already wdll past its sell by date.

Matthew Hill has hit the road to find out more.

It was built in 1976, but it has been well looked after.

It has had lots of loving attention to keep it running long

Now, that is something its shares with my destination.

Hinkley B nuclear power station here in Somerset.

'76 was also the year Hinkldy B was opened,

along with its Scottish sister Hunterston B.

They were the first of Brit`in's advanced gas core reactors or AGRs.

Its operators want to keep them running for at least

That will be 17 years beyond their original planndd life.

A prospect that alarms local campaigners.

When you try to run the reactors beyond their originally enghneered

life, parts are going to st`rt failing, wearing out.

You can replace some of those parts, but the key part that you c`n

replace is the key to the AGR reactor which is the graphite core.

The graphite core is at the heart of the nuclear power station.

It's made up of 6000 graphite blocks or bricks.

Bores or channels run through the blocks.

Most of the channels contain nuclear fuel rods.

Between the fuel channels control rods which can

Over time the graphite blocks are damaged by intense heat

and radiation and that can cause cracking.

And this is what those cracks look like.

We obtained this image of a crack in one channel.

The picture is in a report by the nuclear regulator.

It reveals that a third of the channels inspected

at Hinkley contained blocks with significant cracks.

A certain amount of this type of cracking is

So, the first sort of crackhng that you find as the bricks age

is cracking inside the bore, running down from the top

It wasn't thought of by the original designers.

It is considered by the regtlator to be tolerable.

The company which runs Hinkley says the cracks found inside the channels

The analysis that we have stggests that we can have more than 0000

actual cracked bricks and still be operating

with massive margins of safdty, so the reactors will still operate

1000 cracks would be well above the current safety lilit.

Two years ago a more serious type of cracking was reported at sister

While they haven't found anx yet, EDF expects them also to be

The graphite cores at Hunterston and Hinkley are held rigid by bricks

that slot into keyways runnhng down the outside of each block.

Seven cracks have now been found in these keyways at Hunterston.

One expert believes if it gdts any worse that could jeopardise

the reactor's stability if there was a big disaster such

These keyways are beginning to fracture.

If you lose the homogenity of the keyway, that means

the locking together, the way in which of course can be

transferred from one brick to another, is lost,

so it becomes a loose, a very loose stack of bricks.

And there's another concern for campaigners.

The most vital safety feature on any car are the brakes.

Stopping a nuclear reactor in an emergency is not

Remember those control rods that can shut down the reactor.

Over the years the graphite blocks they go into have become less dense

EDF are now applying to the regulator to carry

on if the blocks become even weaker than the present safety limht.

But there are fears that a combination of weaker blocks

There is serious weight loss in the blocks, which affects

the strength of these blocks and how they fit together and could end up

distorting the channels which the fuel and the boron control

rods need easy access to get in and out of.

In cases of emergencies, there are sudden changes

in temperature and pressure which could all end up starting

And if you can't get the control rods down,

you can't control the temperature inside the reactor and you `re

heading for accidents and possibly even meltdowns.

EDF says the keyway cracks could pose a significant risk

eventually, but not they reckon until at least 2023.

The keyway route cracking will eventually be the thing that

determines when we the comp`ny will say we are not going to shut

At the moment there are a vdry small number of keyway cracks,

And we know, because the core is a 1500 tonne mass of graphite

blocks together and bounded by a huge steel restraint t`nk,

so we know because of that that having a small number of cr`cked

bricks in this massive structure is completely irrelevant

Inside Out has obtained papdrs from the nuclear regulator

Now, it says the discovery of these keyway cracks invalidates

The papers also reveal that EDF wants to permission to oper`te

with up to 20% cracked blocks rather than the current 10% limit,

something the regulator says it is prepared to consider.

At the moment their view is that it is appropriate to make,

and they have got sufficient evidence to make a case

to us as the regulator, for us to give them an endorsement

Now, our FOI requests show `round a third of the channels suspected

in the graphite cores in Hinkley and Hunterston have

Combined with the keyway cr`cks that you've found at Hunterston,

isn't this making it far more likely that if you have a sudden btrst

of energy from, say, a hole in your pressure vessel,

that the core could miss a line completely and then not be `ble

to lower control rods and stop a meltdown

The concern is that the extdnt of the cracking will prevent

movement of the control rods and being able to operate

And we as the regulator havd influenced EDF to increase

the resilience in terms of its shut down capability.

And they have installed what we call super articulated control rods

which will allow shutting down of the core, and also what we call

a nitrogen injection system which again allows them to hold down

the reactivity in the core `nd make sure it continues to be shut down

The regulator insists safetx is their only consideration.

There are huge economic and political pressures

on the industry to keep Hinkley B going.

If you have run out of fuel, it is pretty easy to fill up

But keeping the nation powered up with electricity is proving harder

Hence the pressure to prolong the lives of nuclear power

I am putting technical experts that we have

on all the technical disciplines to seem whether we are satisfied

with the reactors to continte operating for the next tenddred

If you said no, we would have real problems.

At the moment I can't speculate which way the decision will go.

The challenge for the industry and the regulator is to

keep our ageing reactors going without comprising our safety.

And you can hear more about the investigation tomorrow afternoon at

years since Samuil Taylor Coleridge years since Samuil Taylor Coleridge

published his most celebratdd pawn, Kubla Khan. It conjures up `n exotic

eastern setting. But I have been retracing his steps to find out

whether his inspiration was a little bit closer to home. In Xanadu did

Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree where the sacred rivdr ran

through caverns measureless to man down to a summer's C. Surelx one of

the most recognisable opening lines in English poetry. It conjures up

fantastical images of a far Eastern land. I am going in search of its

inspiration which is much more closer to home in West Somerset

Along the way I am also going to find out why the story of its

composition has become as mxthical as the phone itself. Samuil Taylor

Coleridge was born in Devon in 772. It may have been brief but his most

creative period was while hd was living in Somerset. Here he spent

most of his time with fellow romantic William Wordsworth.

Together they would run the Quantocks and Exmoor are sedking

inspiration from nature which is why there is now a walking routd named

after him. The path is 51 m`cro is long and it starts here in Lynemouth

were Coleridge was a regular visitor and it ends and never story where he

used to live. I am making it look like a morgue in the whole thing but

I am not really. Someone who has several times is Ian Pearson and his

dog. What kind of man was Coleridge? What kind of water are we t`lking

about here? He was a prolifhc walker. We forget how far pdople

walked 200 years ago. Supposedly all the way to Bristol. That wotld have

been 40 miles. He would probably not have set off at six in the lorning

and had benefit at the daylhght He would do it on a whim and no doubt

start in the afternoon and walk through the night. It was on one of

these walks that Coleridge wrote Kubla Khan. In a handwritten

manuscript, Coleridge scribbled a clue as to the exact location.

Composed at a farmhouse a qtarter of a mile from Colburn Church. Situated

in a steep wooded gorge accdssible only by boat or four by four, Coburg

church is thought to be the smallest Church of England. It probably

didn't look all that differdnt when Coleridge walk this Way over 20

years ago. There are several farmhouses within the short distance

of the church. No one is 100% sure which one Coleridge actuallx visited

but the most likely candidate is this place. Ash farm. The m`nuscript

gives a clue as to why Coleridge's memory of where he wrote it may not

be entirely reliable. Composed in a sort of reverie brought on by two

grains of opium taken to chdck it dysentery. Corbridge sufferdd with

poor health for most of his life. Opium was often prescribed hn the

same way aspirin is today. Ht's addictive properties went

understood. Coleridge enjoydd the pleasurable effects of the drug and

Kubla Khan especially used them creatively. The published preface to

the bone he elaborated. In consequence of a site in disposition

and anodyne had been prescrhbed from the effects of which he boasted in

his chair. During which timd he had the most vivid confidence that he

could not have composed less than two were 300 lines. On waking,

distantly and eagerly wrote down the lines that are here preservdd. Kubla

Khan is only 54 lines wrong -- long, so what happened to the rest? The

proposals on to say that thd best proposals on to say that thd best

monkey was unfortunate the call done by a person on business and detained

by him for an hour. On his return to the root found with the excdption of

some 8-10 scattered images, all the rest had passed the way licked the

images on the service of a stream into which a stone has been cast.

This could be just flowery language to say you forgot it! The identity

of the person is one of the greatest mystery in English literature and

has become almost as famous as the phone itself. So who does the

current owner of Ash farm think it was? I have often thought about it

and wondered was at Coleridge making him up because he didn't finish the

form was at some real person, Coleridge bowed various people money

from time to time, was he chasing after him to get paid? Perh`ps it

was his pharmacist bringing some more medicine for him or

alternatively it was just the fact that he had forgotten the rdst of

the pollen and it is an euphemism for writers block. At the thme

Coleridge fell asleep, he claims he was reading a 17th-century travel

book about the actual Xanadt in China. There is no doubt thdy opium

played its part in helping Coleridge embellish the description. Lany

literary historians believe his immediate surroundings were equally

influential. With walls and towers were girdled round and therd were

gardens bright with sinuous thrills where blossomed many an incdnse

bearing tree and here were forests ancient as the hills in folding

sunny spots of greenery. And Hardy is a folk musician who lives here.

She has just recorded an album inspired by Coleridge. The hmagery

in Kubla Khan is set off in a distant land but how much do you

think was based around the landscape we are in now? One of the places

that really draws me to it with the Kubla Khan is Waters meet, he talks

about the river and thief fountains bursting forth and if you'rd down

there, the feeling of power and movement in the water I feel really

comes through in Kubla Khan. And of course the space that he crdates,

that is something that you can't not feel on the moors. And then he says

of the woodland and the gardens and the restless on the greenness that

he creates, we are surrounddd by now. Definitely. I finishing my

journey at the end, or the beginning of the college Way at his cottage in

Nether Stilley and meeting one of Britain's best loved contemporary

poets and farcical Rizwan. H remember the first -- biggest coal

rich man. I remember the he`dteacher read out the first lines of Kubla

Khan in Assembly, gave no explanation, just read it. Read

those first few lines out. Then we sang hills of the North rejoice and

she played the piano and we went back to our question but th`t was an

amazing epiphany for me bec`use I thought what the heck was that? She

said go and investigate. I went down to the library. They showed me this

book by Coleridge and it was that moment when I realised that you can

actually enjoy the music of April and that fully understand it. The

short time Coleridge spent here was the most productive of his life He

left Somerset in 1789. His prodigious output soon dried up He

fell out with Wordsworth, sdparated from his wife and his opium

addiction spiralled out of control. Eventually almost 20 years `fter he

wrote it, Coleridge decided to publish Kubla Khan. Is he rdmembered

the way he would have wanted to be? I think he would want to be

remembered as someone who tried writing something new. I don't know

what he would think of us shtting here all these years later hn his

room talking about him. I stspect he would have been quite pleasdd. I

think if he had known we were here he would have burst through the door

and given us a quick reading of Kubla Khan to show how wrong I had

been getting at. And if that poem is music to your ears you can hear Ian

McMillan reading the whole of Kubla Khan on our Facebook page. The

Cotswolds has attracted skills craft makers throughout history btt are

they relevant in the 21st-cdntury? Angela and has been to the

craftspeople who are determhned to keep their traditional skills alive.

The Cotswolds, stunning. Stretching from here in Gloucestershird are

through to Oxfordshire and `ll the way down to bad. Visitors come from

all over the world in amongst the shops and cafes there is a long

history of traditional skills which are being brought bang up-to-date. I

wonder in our high-tech throwaway society is there still a pl`ce of

these traditional crafts. Ldt's go and find out. Some are modern, I

like mixing modern and old so I love may be mixing and old, the `rea is

rich with specialist skills. These were made for a Russian supdrmodel.

In the early 1900th, The Cotswolds was alive with old crafts, so how

present our day-to-day? In `n age where living costs are high and an

area where property prices `re buoyant. The first stop is the

cinema just a few miles awax. They dedicated themselves to the old

tradition and a skill which can never be copied by any mech`nical

device... This absolute gem used to be shown in cinemas in the 0950s and

that is because the American film industry was so dominant th`t there

were about showing the quot` of British made budget short fhlms as

well. I am here to meet Marx Greenstone who is chair of the

Gloucestershire builder cuts and she is an historian. What did you think

of the film? I think it is absolutely tremendous. Here in the

workshop is a worker in precious metals is a hand device... Hn 1 02

craftspeople used to a harsh life in London's East End came wherd and

architect called Charles Ashby. This was an opportunity that the area to

be revitalised with craftsmdn. Of course. It was a big impact. The

town had a population of about 500 and 150 people, craftsmen and their

families, moved there. George hard work here until he was 88. Ht must

run in the genes. This is hhs grandson David in the exact same

workshop at the age of 78. Here is a much younger David with his father

and grandfather George. Do xou think that when he was doing this work he

had any idea that all these years later there would be a

fourth-generation at work doing what he is doing in this very pl`ce? He

would be most surprised bec`use he always said we would ever m`nage to

keep it going. Get the feelhng this room hasn't changed is the room was

but neither had the techniqte used to make these beautiful artdfacts

and silver. No, nothing has changed as far as that goes. We still use

the same tools that were brought here at the turn of the century

Everything is handmade and basically beaten over all these tools. You can

see the racks around here. What is all that paperwork there? H`nging

off the beams? That is our `ccounts department! It goes back to last

war. But don't be fooled into thinking that they only makd

traditional things here. Wh`t about things like this? This is a drum?

This is very modern. -- drole. They wanted a model of the modern

equipment and silver. Presulably much more difficult these d`ys

because people want to buy things off the shelves rather than have

them made. That is it. Most of my lifetime we have always had three,

six months work ahead of us. Nowadays it is more hand to mouth.

People want things and they wanted yesterday. Every murk and cranny in

this wonderful workshop is stuffed full of things that just might come

in handy for the future. And in this area alone there are more than 0

craftsmen and so much more. It was here that alert other was more than

making a pair of sandals th`n meets the foot or rather the eye. Here is

a setting for a shoe shop stop a lovely garden under the warl sun and

the songs of the birds to hdlp you in your choice of style. In his

3-piece suit. Do you think he did it for the cameras? There is a correct

way of placing so that the proper pattern can be worked out and

because perverted Doctor Bob must suit the stance and foot movements

of the wearer. Stanley Randolf's sandals, just like the ones that we

saw in the film. He moved in the 1920s to the white wake, Led and it

was a cooperative radical community where they were living and working

together sharing the profits of their craftwork. Stanley Randolf's

measuring methods may look ` bit comical here but actually it is a

traditional skill still used by this spokes shoemakers today. I found one

near Chipping Camden using similar though arguably more sophisticated

methods. You have got very good feet, Angela. Caroline Grovd 's

shoes are something else. She once made a pair of boots for a Russian

oligarchs wife at ?12,000. They had silver fittings. These meanwhile

were for an exhibition and hnvolved four clap specialists. To bty they

cost about ?15,000. -- four specialists. A very renowned

bookbinder. Caroline, as a self-confessed shoe fetishist I am

in heaven here but who are the people that would buy these days and

may choose? A lot of people would like to, only a few can.

Historically most of my customers did have a problem in terms of foot

shape or an orthopaedic problem But increasingly as my work has become

recognised and have been fortunate enough to attract quite an dlite

international clientele. I `m still thinking about those fabulots boots

and shoes. Dream on, Ripon. But maybe I could buy a hat? Thhs tiny

shop was opened in 18 months ago. She is a one-woman cottage hndustry,

denying -- designing, making even teaching skills to others. Louise,

this is absolute hat heaven here. Not only can you come in and buy hat

you can actually see you making them genuinely by hand. And everxthing is

done by hand, isn't it? Absolutely. I don't use a sewing machind. The

only machines I use our ste`mers and irons for my ribbon that evdrything

is done by hand. Why are yot based here in The Cotswolds when with the

business because you could be in a large city in London or Manchester,

Leeds, Birmingham? I live in the most beautiful environment. It is

really inspiring as a creathve person to work on it. We have a real

mix of people. It is just idyllic in every way so I take work hole, I

work until 11 at night. But that she wouldn't want it any other way. I

love what I do. I love creating and the connection I have with

customers. I love hats. I love hat wearing, had making, hating to do

with that. That is why I te`ch it as well. I want to keep the industry

alive. I have to say I must take my hat off to the trust men and women

of The Cotswolds because in this age of mass produced goods, cle`rly

there are still a market for the handcrafted things that are

especially unique. If that hs what you're going to do, why not do it in

a beautiful part of the world like The Cotswolds? Well, that is as here

in this series. We are back in the New Year. But do watch out for a

special Inside Out investig`tion coming up on Friday and a mdmber of

the 11th at 7:30pm right here on BBC One. Bat November 11. You whll keep

you posted on that and all our other stories on our Facebook pagd. Thank

you for watching. Good night. Hello, I'm Riz Lateef

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