Britain's key nuclear warheads factory was at the centre of controversy last night after it admitted more than 100 breaches of safety in the past year, but denied the public had ever been put at risk.
The director of communications at the Atomic Weapons Establishment in Aldermaston, Berkshire, branded claims that only luck had prevented an accident worse than that in Japan as "irresponsible scare-mongering". Mr Graeme Hammond added: "If the situation had been one-tenth as bad as it has been purported, we would have been shut down immediately."
Aldermaston's director of safety, Mr John Crofts, insisted: "I am not denying any of these incidents took place, and I'm not trying to give the impression they're trivial, but claims we have been on the brink of a nuclear crisis are a gross exaggeration.
"I live down the road with my wife and five children and I wouldn't do so if I thought there were any risk. I give you my personal assurance, Aldermaston is safe."
The plant's emphatic denials came after the Observer newspaper published details of a leaked report highlighting more than 100 dangerous accidents, breakdowns in safety procedures and instances of environmental contamination since September 1998.
Among these were eight breaches of the "criticality" rules in place to ensure that too much uranium or plutonium does not collect together and trigger nuclear fission, as happened in Japan, and eight instances of environmental contamination outside the site.
There were also eight occasions when materials, including plutonium, were incorrectly packaged or labelled, and 19 highly serious health and safety incidents including all fire-fighting pumping appliances being unfit for service.
Some of the most serious breaches included part of the system to protect the factory from a lightning strike that could trigger a nuclear explosion being "locked off and fuses removed"; a power failure leading to "widespread disruption" after emergency generators failed; and an electrician using metal equipment which could have sparked an explosion in "close proximity to explosive powder".
The leaking of the catalogue of breaches comes as the Environment Agency prepares to decide whether to prosecute the privatised Aldermaston Weapons Establishment, which comprises the Aldermaston factory and one three miles away at Burghfield, for dumping tritium, a radioactive substance, in a stream from which drinking water is ultimately sourced, in February this year.
It also follows the company being fined £22,000, plus £7,500 costs after two workers breathed in radioactive particles from plutonium that had escaped from a laboratory in August last year.
Last night the establishment insisted it was "regulated up to the eyeballs" by external agencies, and said it was being penalised for its "openness and transparency" in reporting breaches, made freely available to all 4,500 workers at the plant.
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament described the catalogue of breaches as horrendous and called for an independent public inquiry. A local MP, Mr Martin Salter, said: "However small some of these incidents are, the cumulative effect merely serves to fuel public anxiety and stoke the demand for a full and open independent public inquiry."