Following the recent transmission of the BBC 1 Panorama investigation into failings at Sellafied, there has been a lot of media coverage both at local and national level. Amongst those who were asked to comment was former Cumbria County Council leader and Cumbria Trust Chairman, Eddie Martin who spoke to Mike Zeller on Radio Cumbria.“I believe Sellafield should be and is the UK’s number one priority, never mind HS2 at £50billion… sort out Sellafield” ~Eddie Martin
Cumbria Trust 7th Sept 2016 read more »
When asked by John Humphrys, if last night’s Panorama report made him slightly more nervous, Laurence Williams (Emeritus Professor of Nuclear Safety and Regulation) responded: “I came on this programme to talk about nuclear waste management”
Cumbria Trust 6th Sept 2016 read more »
Ulster Unionist MLA Harold McKee has called on the Sellafield Nuclear reprocessing plant to respond to claims made by the BBC Panorama programme, in order to restore public confidence.
Belfast Telegraph 6th Sept 2016 read more »
Ulster Unionist Party 6th Sept 2016 read more »
The Government has been urged to demand the complete closure of the Sellafield nuclear site on the west coast of Britain after a BBC programme raised concerns about safety at the facility. The Panorama investigation was prompted by a former senior manager turned whistleblower who expressed fears about conditions at the site in Cumbria which is some 170km from the Irish coast. The programme alleged that radioactive plutonium and uranium were stored in plastic bottles at Sellafield, and the facility often did not have enough people on duty to meet minimum safety levels. Louth councillor Mark Dearey of the Green Party said the programme had again highlighted why Sellafield remained a source of alarm to people in Ireland. Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said the Government should demand the closure of Sellafield. His Louth constituency was “in the front line of any threat”. Fianna Fáil TD for Louth Declan Breathnach said concerns raised in the documentary needed to be addressed immediately. In a statement, Minister for Energy Denis Naughten said Sellafield was “an ongoing concern” for him and the Government, and a detailed report on the matters raised in Panorama had been sought.
Irish Times 6th Sept 2016 read more »
Friends of the Irish Environment said the Government had taken its eye off the potential threat posed by the facility situated in Cumbria, England, just 170km from the Irish coast. Sinn Féin also said Ireland must demand the closure of the plant and oppose plans for new reactors on the site. The comments follow an investigation by the BBC’s Panorama programme in which a former manager at the plant turned whistle-blower gave a frightening account of understaffing at the facility, which he also described as being “dangerously run down”.
Irish Examiner 7th Sept 2016 read more »
South Down MP Margaret Ritchie said a plan to decommission Sellafield must now come. The SDLP politician said the risks exposed by Panorama are the latest in a “litany of hazards” since Sellafield became a nuclear waste processing site. Ms Ritchie has previously spoken out about the discharge of radioactive material into the Irish Sea. Panorama outlined failures in terms of staffing levels, infrastructure and the condition of facilities at the site, with operational safety concerns also expressed.
Irish News 7th Sept 2016 read more »
Sinn Féin MEP Matt Carthy has called for the closure of the Sellafield nuclear plant in England. Shocking revelations by the BBC’s Panorama programme last night showed dangerous, radioactive material stored in degrading plastic bottles. It also revealed that there is a lack of workers on the site on Britain’s Cumbria coast, and major risks of a major radioactive fire with devastating consequences right across western Europe. Mr Carthy said: “Sellafield, which is a dirty word in Ireland, a nuclear free country, is now a threat to all of Europe. It must be closed and there should be a halt to the construction of any further nuclear power plants near the Irish Sea. “The east coast of Ireland, particularly counties Louth and Meath, would be very directly threatened by any accident or fire at Sellafield.
Breaking News 6th Sept 2016 read more »
The Journal 6th Sept 2016 read more »
Panorama’s exposure last night of Sellafield safety failings, run-down infrastructure and under-staffing will rightly have shocked many national viewers but will not have come as such a surprise to locals and groups such as CORE who routinely monitor the site’s activities. Whilst many of the problems exposed – not for the first time – may owe their origins to the ‘bad old days’ and have been quietly festering for decades, the blame lies squarely with today’s owners and operators and their inability – despite the £Billions of taxpayer money pumped into site – to rectify what Panorama described as the most ‘basic mistakes’. Many of the failures are inexcusable – under-staffing of emergency and some operational services as a prime example – and the complacent and unconvincing explanations offered to Panorama by Sellafield, NDA and ONR were less than reassuring, smacked of familiarity breeding contempt and done nothing to boost public confidence in the site’s safety. ‘Rather than looking for scapegoats for the ‘intolerable’ state of the site, dismissing the whistle-blower as a disgruntled ex-manager (and no doubt the American NMP interviewees as suffering from sour grapes after recently being stripped of their clean-up contract) we would all be better served by Sellafield concentrating on its own somewhat obvious inadequacies and ongoing failures as exposed by Panorama rather than playing the blame game’.
CORE 6th Sept 2016 read more »
The Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA) All Ireland Forum calls on Foreign Minister Charlie Flanagan to challenge the UK Government over shocking claims made by a high-level ‘whistleblower’ at the Sellafield site in Cumbria, which were aired on last night’s BBC ‘Panorama’ documentary. NFLA also calls on the Radiological Institute of Ireland to review its risk assessment on the impact of a major incident at Sellafield on Ireland given the allegations made. NFLA is also publishing today an overview of the wider issues of Sellafield reprocessing provided by independent radiation consultant, Dr Ian Fairlie.
NFLA 6th Sept 2016 read more »
The Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA) calls today for the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), the Government and Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee to investigate the shocking claims made by a high-level ‘whistleblower’ at the Sellafield site in last night’s BBC ‘Panorama’ documentary. NFLA also publishes today an overview of the wider issues of Sellafield reprocessing provided by independent radiation consultant, Dr Ian Fairlie.
NFLA 6th Sept 2016 read more »
Last night’s BBC Panorama programme did a good job at lifting the lid on Britain’s ongoing nuclear disaster that is Sellafield, writes Ian Fairlie. But it failed to expose the full scandal of the UK’s ‘reprocessing’ of spent fuel into 50 tonnes of plutonium, enough to build 20,000 nuclear bombs – while leaving £100s of billions of maintenance and cleanup costs to future generations.
Ecologist 6th Sept 2016 read more »
Sloppy working procedures at Sellafield outed by BBC Panorama have just underscored the risks posed by nuclear power. According to an investigation sparked by a whistleblower, parts of the nuclear facility are being operated below minimum staff levels, and radioactive materials are being inadequately stored in plastic bottles. The revelation comes as the government discusses the details of a major investment to build the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station, a project which has been severely criticised by nuclear experts and called “the most expensive object on earth” by critics. The new revelations about Sellafield call into question the safety of the site, and should make the government reflect on its risky and expensive nuclear programmes, including that of Hinkley Point C.
Canary 5th Sept 2016 read more »
The owner and operator of the UK’s Sellafield complex, together with the country’s nuclear regulator, have dismissed safety concerns raised in a BBC documentary investigating “the shocking state of Britain’s most hazardous nuclear site”.
World Nuclear News 6th Sept 2016 read more »