A BBC investigation has uncovered a catalogue of safety concerns at the UK’s most hazardous nuclear site. Panorama found parts of Sellafield regularly have too few staff to operate safely and that radioactive materials have been stored in degrading plastic bottles. The programme was told that parts of the facility are dangerously rundown. Sellafield says the site in Cumbria is safe and has been improved with significant investment in recent years. The Panorama investigation was prompted by a whistle-blower – a former senior manager who was worried by conditions. He explained that his biggest fear was a fire in one of the nuclear waste silos or one of the processing plants and said: “If there is a fire there it could generate a plume of radiological waste that will go across Western Europe.” The whistle-blower told the BBC that areas of Sellafield – which reprocesses and stores nearly all of the nation’s nuclear waste – often didn’t have enough staff on duty to meet minimum safety levels. Minimum staff levels are set for both teams of workers and whole plants on the site.
BBC 5th Sept 2016 read more »
A BBC investigation has uncovered a catalogue of safety concerns at the UK’s most hazardous nuclear site. Panorama found parts of Sellafield regularly have too few staff to operate safely and that radioactive materials have been stored in degrading plastic bottles. A whistle-blower (former senior manager) who was worried by conditions explained that his biggest fear was a fire in one of the nuclear waste silos or one of the processing plants and said: “If there is a fire there it could generate a plume of radiological waste that will go across Western Europe.” The whistle-blower also told the BBC that areas of Sellafield – which reprocesses and stores nearly all of the nation’s nuclear waste – often didn’t have enough staff on duty to meet minimum safety levels.
Cumbria Trust 6th Sept 2016 read more »
Whistleblowers have raised a catalogue of concerns about safety at the Sellafield nuclear facility in Cumbria, including allegations that radioactive waste has been stored for years in degrading plastic bottles. An investigation by BBC’s Panorama programme — prompted by a former senior manager at Sellafield — found that parts of the site were “dangerously run down” and regularly had too few staff to operate safely. Figures obtained by Panorama indicated that between July 2012 and July 2013 there were 97 incidents where parts of the site had too few workers on shift.
FT 5th Sept 2016 read more »
Independent 5th Sept 2016 read more »
The NDA insisted that all of its nuclear material was “stored safely and securely in proper facilities and monitored accordingly”. It said the bottles were “suitable for handling this type of material” and were “housed in purpose made facilities within scientific laboratories, until their contents are chemically recycled by the site as part of the clean programme agreed with the regulator”. However, a spokesman for the safety watchdog, the Office for Nuclear Regulation, said it was aware of the issue with plastic bottles, which it said were “small sample bottles, consisting mainly of water and solvent”. These bottles could “become brittle and deform” with time, although it said that the situation “could not lead to a major incident”. The ONR said that work was “progressing well” to transfer the bottles into “new robust packaging”.
Telegraph 5th Sept 2016 read more »
Times 6th Sept 2016 read more »