Opening Address

We are at a stage in so many branches of techno‐

logy that conferences often go over much old

ground because not enough new material is avai‐

lable. But in the field covered by this

Conference continuous advance of a very practical

nature has been occurring all along the line. I

see this therefore as a valuable opportunity for

people who have been working on comparable prob‐

lems to get together to review them.

The Conference is being held at a time when the media searchlight is directed at the nuclear industry because of the accident of 28 March, 1979, at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania. It will obviously take some time for the records of the period leading up to that accident to be ana‐ lysed sufficiently closely for an understanding of precisely what happened to be gained. But very little activity has been released - that is about all the hard information we have. Meanwhile much speculation inevitably goes on in the media. And when we have been involved in briefing the media from time to time we know how strange is the story that so often appears. For example, at the press conference held after Hinkley Point AGR was commissioned, we explained how the output was limited to about 80%, that this was because the first results from the long term accelerated corrosion tests on 9% chrome steel boiler material were not as good as we had expected. We explained how that decision had been taken three years earlier and that the longer term results then coming forward were giving more reassurance so that the restriction was likely to be lifted. And I understand that CEGB have recently done this. The next day a headline in one of the national papers was 'New corrosion problem hits AGRsT, when in fact we were trying to get the message over to that guardian of the nation*s conscience that an old problem probably did not exist any longer.