It’s all very well having safety systems… but if you don’t actually test what happens in practice:
University staff devastated as 10 years of research lost in power cut
Cold units at University of Gloucestershire did not automatically reset after “a safety over-ride”.
Ten years of research was lost at a university due to a power cut which affected a science lab.
Staff at University of Gloucestershire found the incident “distressing” and bosses are working to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
What I found surprising was:
It wants permission to install an electric generator at the campus in case there are further power cuts in the future.
The report said bacteria and cell lines are kept in fridges and freezers, at between -4C and -80C, that are run off mains electrical power.
But a safety override meant the cold units in the campus’ new Biomedical Science facility did not automatically reset, leading to the chaos.
It also caused a loss of materials and has cost the university thousands of pounds.
The reason they lost the lot?
However, owing to budget constraints, a backup supply was not installed at FCH at the time of the Bioscience lab build.
Not even a system to notify staff by mail/SMS over the weekend that the power had failed.
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