Sellafield to resume processing German nuclear waste

Spent nuclear fuel from Germany is to be reprocessed in Britain for the first time in three years.

A shipment from two reactors in southern Germany is to be transported to Sellafield, Cumbria, later this month.

Shipments were suspended in 1998 because of safety issues.

Five flasks will be transported from Biblis and Neckarwestheim to Britain by train. Another shipment was taken to France earlier this week.

Bill Anderton, a spokesman for BNFL, which runs the Sellafield site, confirmed that permits had been granted for the transportation of fuel from the two German reactors this morning.

He said: "Fuel has been transported from Germany for the last 20 years but this is the first load since May 1998."

Mr Anderton explained that the transportation was stopped because of what was known as "sweating" on the flasks, but this problem had now been rectified.

In recent years the Cumbrian plant has been plagued with problems.

Last year five process workers were sacked after an investigation by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate into claims that 22 manual checks on batches of uranium and plutonium mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel rods had been falsified.

And in February last year the Japanese government demanded that a shipment of MOX fuel was returned to Britain.