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| 8/6/06 Sellafield in Court British Nuclear Group today pleaded guilty at Whitehaven Magistrates Court, West Cumbria, to three charges brought by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE). The charges relate to the failures by the Company which led to the leakage of 83,000 litres of highly radioactive liquor from a fractured pipe within the Feed Clarification Cell of the Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (THORP) last April. Briefly summarising the case as one 'we do not take lightly', HSE's prosecutor pointed to the highly technical nature of the case. Requesting that the matter be dealt with at Crown Court level, HSE reminded the Magistrates that the penalties they could impose were limited to £5000 per charge. The Magistrates agreed to the request and an initial Crown Court (Carlisle) hearing was set for of 7th July. BNG's defence said little in reply other than to stress to the Court that all the leaked radiactive material had been contained within THORP and that there had been no risk to the general public. The Court heard that the charges related to breaches of conditions of Sellafield's Site Licence which had occured between 28th August 2004 and 18th April 2005. In essence, the breaches related to failures by the Company i) to make and comply with written instructions, ii) to ensure that safety systems were in good working order and that radioactive materials were contained, and iii) that if leaks occured they were detected and reported. CORE's spokesperson Martin Forwood said after the hearing "BNG's own investigation into the accident admitted significant levels of negligence and incompetence by THORP workers as significantly contributing to the accident. They had little option but to plead guilty and we trust that the Crown Court hands down the tough penalties that such a case deserves". THORP remains closed today 14 months after the accident. A repair option (to bypass the damaged area of the THORP cell) has been agreed between BNG and the plant's owners The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) but is still being assessed by the HSE's Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII). A re-start of reprocessing operations at THORP, initially flagged up as December 2005, is now put by NDA as 'this summer', though independent experts believe this is optimistic in the extreme. Meanwhile, with THORP out of operation, stocks of reactor fuel from British Energy's power stations continue to fill Sellafield's dwindling pond storage space. Concerns about fuel storage have already ben raised by the NDA and will be increasingly echoed by British Energy as a fuel 'gridlock' threatens power station operation. |
| 9/6/05 Health study leaves Sellafield on the hook but conveniently clears nuclear power stations. The 10th report by the Committee on the Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment (COMARE) published today identifies Sellafield once again as a site with more cases of childhood cancer than any other nuclear installation. In the Report, COMARE’s chairman Bryn Bridges points to the increased leukaemias and non-Hodgkin lymphomas around Sellafield as having already been identified in the Committee’s previous reports which have all concluded that Sellafield’s activities cannot, with certainty, be ruled out as a possible cause. CORE’s Health Campaigner Janine Allis-Smith said “There is nothing new about Sellafield in this report which concentrates largely on nuclear power stations rather than reprocessing and other plant. COMARE has even trotted out the population mixing theory for the Sellafield cancers which the Report refers to as a ‘blip’. As an affected parent I take exception to our children being referred to as blips – and their cancers being attributed to a mere theory for which no virus has ever been identified, which has never been supported anywhere else in the world, and of which there is no sign in Japan’s remote Rokkasho village, where thousands of non-local workers have been imported over almost 2 decades to build a reprocessing plant similar to Sellafield. The COMARE Report which studies over 32000 cases of childhood cancer diagnosed in Britain between 1969 and 1993, reports that during its peak discharge years Sellafield’s discharges were over 200,000 times higher than those around nuclear power stations. It concludes that it can find no evidence of a greater cancer risk to children around nuclear power stations. Janine Allis-Smith added “ We find it curious that at the very time our Government is making noises about building new power stations in the UK, its Committee should come up with a clean bill of health for existing power stations. It is also fortunate for Sellafield, that although its own scientists agree that increasing radiation levels in the environment will result in extra cancers and genetic defects, radiation does not leave a visiting card and the actual victims cannot be identified. Given that BNFL compensates its own workers, on as little as a 20% probability that their cancers were caused by work-related radiation, we reject the suggestion that the unacceptably high authorised and accidental discharges outside the fence, have not affected our children’s health”. |
| www.corwm.org.uk/content-249 CoRWM |
| www.greenpeace.org.uk Greenpeace UK, London. |
| www.greenpeace.org Greenpeace International |
| www.foe.co.uk Friends of the Earth |
| www.lakestay.co.uk Lakestay – Lake District Guide |
| www.n.base.org.uk N-Base Nuclear Information Service |
| www.llrc.org Low Level Radiation Campaign |
| www.gn.apc.org/nfznsc Nuclear Free Local Authorities |
| www.nci.org Nuclear Control Institute |
| www.jca.apc.org/cnic Citizens Nuclear Information Centre |
| www.antenna.nl/wise World Information Service on Energy |
| www.bnfl.com British Nuclear Fuels plc |
| www.british-energy.com British Energy |
| www.ukaea.org.uk United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority |
| www.iaea.org/worldatom International Atomic Energy Agency |
| www.nrpb.org.uk National Radiological Protection Board |
| www.gtnet.gov.uk/hse/nsd Nuclear Safety Directorate NII |
| www.maff.gov.uk Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries & Food |
| furness online This site concentrates on providing services for people in the furness area. |