Summary A summary of statements from the BNFL Environment, Health & Safety Report 1998/99, "Responsible for safety and care for the environment", and the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) Investigation of Sellafield (6-27 September 1999), published February 2000.
18th February, 2000 - Greenpeace today urged the Government to end nuclear reprocessing and refuse BNFL permission to further commercially develop 'MOX' nuclear fuel following a series of highly critical reports into BNFL's Sellafield site, issued by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII).
The three reports examined site safety at Sellafield, problems surrounding storage of high level radioactive waste on the site and BNFL's falsification of safety data for plutonium fuel (MOX) sent to Japan.
Eight key issues the NII report on Japanese MOX fuel should have addressed
BNFL only admitted it had falsified safety data on MOX fuel after the Independent newspaper found out. Then it repeatedly denied that any data on the fuel sent to Japan was falsified, until data released in Japan, and a memo from the NII, showed otherwise. The NII report can only be reliable if all the documents and data related to the scandal are released.
Accidents and events list compiled by CORE (Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment) from a range of sources. Bracketed figures refer to Sellafield Newsletter edition in which accident is reported, single figure to level on INES. Complete list from 1950.
The following accidents and incidents resulting in worker contamination or over-exposure in Sellafield's reprocessing plants have been reported since 1950.
The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate's (NII) team inspection of Sellafield came as a result of an apparent increase in the number of safety incidents at the site in the first few months of 1999, as well as issues raised by routine NII inspections 2 . The inspection's findings have led to the NII threatening to force BNFL to close down operations at the controversial nuclear site if safety standards are not improved within two months.
Posted by bex — 17 February 2000 at 9:00am
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Before the Government decided it needed to set up a Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, three reports into safety operations by BNFL at Sellafield nuclear plant were published today by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate in February 2000.
The Advisory Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (ACSNI) recommended in 1992 that Highly Active Liquid (HAL) waste should be vitrified (incorporated into glass blocks) as soon as reasonably practicable. BNFL told NII in 1995 that it aimed to reduce HAL stocks to a buffer volume by about 2015...
Responding to the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate report (released tomorrow) into the falsification of plutonium data at BNFL's Sellafield plant, Pete Roche from Greenpeace said, "The whole plutonium business is rotten to the core. Removing one or two bad apples, even from the top, cannot rescue this dangerous and polluting industry".
He added, "It is time for the Government to act decisively and end nuclear reprocessing at Sellafield for good."
