BNFL

A leaked Nuclear Energy Agency report, released today by Greenpeace, contains key evidence which supports Denmark's international initiative to end nuclear reprocessing.

"The industry's own figures prove that Denmark is right to claim that ending reprocessing immediately at Sellafield and La Hague is feasible and would stop the main sources of nuclear pollution," said Greenpeace scientist Dr Helen Wallace, "It is a scandal that this report has been kept hidden for so long."

Greenpeace described today's news that the German nuclear company PruessenElektra has decided to switch off its reactor and remove its BNFL plutonium fuel (MOX) as "the only responsible thing they could have done".

Greenpeace nuclear campaigner Helen Wallace said, "It is time the British Government faced facts and found the off-switch for Sellafield's reprocessing plants. Britain's plutonium business is over, and the widespread pollution and threat to human health Sellafield still produces is unjustifiable."

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.

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."