Shut down Sellafield for good, says Roche

ENVIRONMENT Minister Dick Roche yesterday called for the Sellafield nuclear waste plant to be shut permanently after the operators were fined £500,000 (€743,393) for a radioactive leak that took eight months to detect.

Around 83,000 litres of acid containing 20 tonnes of uranium and 160kg of plutonium leaked from a broken pipe into a sealed concrete tank at Cumbria’s THORP nuclear reprocessing site, which is just 110 miles (180 kilometres) from the Irish coast.

Carlisle Crown Court was told yesterday of a catalogue of safety failings at the plant, while the judge who fined the operators said the place “did not have a good safety record”.

Since the discovery of the leak in April 2005, the THORP plant has remained closed, with reopening scheduled for next year at the earliest.

Mr Roche said the fine reflected in part the seriousness of the leak, but the Irish Government remained deeply concerned over Sellafield.

“(This fine) gives little comfort that the poor, ongoing safety culture identified can or will be tackled by the UK authorities.

“The new safety dawn promised — and ultimately signed off by the UK regulatory authorities — has proved to be false.

“This leak provides further evidence, if such were needed, that the UK authorities should make the current shutdown of the THORP plant a permanent feature.”

The court was told yesterday how a change in the handling process caused the leak, which then went undetected for eight months because of a broken safety gauge.

The leak was finally discovered in April, 2005, when the reprocessing plant was shut down and nuclear safety inspectors went in.

“They found leak-detection procedures were flawed, there was an inadequate safety management system and a culture of tolerating alarms directly contributed to the breaches,” said Mr Richard Matthews, prosecuting.

The company, British Nuclear Group Sellafield, had also failed to carry out regular safety checks and had also lost its ability to detect leaks properly, he said.

No-one was injured in the leak and no radiation escaped from the plant, which processes waste from power stations in Britain and countries as far away as Japan.

The company admitted three charges of breaching its licence under Britain’s Nuclear Installation Act. It was also ordered to pay costs of £68,000 (€101,101).

Fine Gael environment spokesman Fergus O’Dowd said the operators had got off lightly following the leak, which was just short of being declared an official nuclear accident.

“I have no confidence in the ability of Sellafield to handle waste adequately or safely.

“This waste was highly radioactive and would have filled a swimming pool.

“It could have been much worse and the fact it went on for so long is a severe criticism of health and safety management,” he said.