OFFICIALS said last night that a blunder at a North-East nuclear power station had not posed any risk - but admitted the problem will not be fixed for months

An inquiry was launched at Hartlepool power station after a mistake led to uranium rods being put in the wrong position in a nuclear reactor.

The mix-up happened when two different strength fuel elements were inadvertently swapped and dropped into the wrong parts of the unit.

Station chiefs have stressed that the error caused no health risk to the public and the rods would stay in the wrong places until the next shutdown in April.

Dave Price, communications officer at the power station, said the mistake, discovered on Thursday, December 21, was very low on the safety risk scale.

The Health and Safety Executive has rated the mistake as level one on the international nuclear event scale.

The scale starts at zero, deemed an incident of no safety significance, and goes up to seven, which signifies a Chernobyl-style nuclear disaster.

Mr Price said: "The fuel rods that we have put in the wrong cells are not causing any other problems at the moment.

"This is a hiccup and is something which is unfortunate, but it does not cause a problem and is no danger whatsoever.

"Analysis has shown that the reactor can continue to operate safely with these elements in these positions, and they will be exchanged during the next planned shutdown.

"We are looking into it to make sure it doesn't happen again, but it is not causing any problems or safety worries."

The mistake was reported in a newsletter regularly produced by British Energy for the public.

Copies of the document, which states that the error was an "anomaly", are available to Hartlepool residents.

But John Large, an independent nuclear consultant, said the mistake could be a cause for concern and that problems on a managerial level could have resulted in the rods being switched.

He said: "It's all right to say it was OK on the day, but what if it had not been OK on the day?

"Any mistake in a nuclear system is of concern.