Opposition parties express concern over nuclear leak
Opposition parties have voiced concern at reports that a large nuclear spillage went undetected at the Thorp nuclear reprocessing plant at Sellafield for almost six months.
The leak, which was identified on 19 April by staff at the Cumbria plant, originated from a fractured pipe and led to the spillage of 83,000 litres of spent nuclear fuel.
The Independent on Sunday now claims that preliminary findings of an investigation into the leak show the pipe may have started to fail in August 2004 and that opportunities to identify the spillage were missed.
The British Nuclear Group (BNG), which runs the plant, published the initial findings of its investigation on Friday acknowledging that “in the period between January 2005 and 19 April 2005 opportunities… were missed which would have shown that material was escaping.”
In a statement, the group concluded: “Had these opportunities been taken the quantity of liquid released could have been significantly reduced.”
Shadow Trade Secretary David Willetts told the Independent on Sunday he would be raising the incident with ministers in the Commons next week.
“This seems like a basic failure of procedure worthy of Homer Simpson. We do need to rationally consider the nuclear case but every incident like this undermines public confidence,” he said.
Liberal Democrat trade spokesman, Norman Lamb told the paper: “This is staggering, and a timely reminder of why we moved away from nuclear in the first place. The truth is that human error can never be eliminated from this industry.”
A spokeswoman for the Department of Trade and Industry stressed that the Nuclear Decommission Authority (NDA), a Government agency, was still investigating what action to take in regard to the future of the Sellafield plant, which remains closed.
“It is essential that BNG acts urgently to implement the recommendations of the investigation to improve operating practice and retrieve the escaped liquid,” said the spokeswoman.
“Most of Thorp remains closed and the NDA and the regulators are still looking at how best to proceed. We are going to wait for advice before taking a decision on the way forward.”
