Towards a Safer Cumbria March 8th 2013

Friends of the Earth reveals today a catalogue of safety failures over nuclear waste at Sellafield and £millions wasted. A new FoE Briefing 'Towards a safer Cumbria' shows how regulators have lowered safety standards and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has created yet more waste instead of 'focusing squarely on the nuclear legacy', its original mission.

Mike Childs, Head of Research & Policy at Friends of the Earth said:

'Sellafield is making a pig's ear out of clearing up the mess from their costly reprocessing activities. Successive governments have failed to get a grip, with the result that the people of Cumbria continue to face intolerable risks. We need a firm commitment from government that sorting out this mess is a top priority with a firm deadline for making the waste safe'

FoE calls on Cumbria County Councils and the Borough Councils to continue pressing for urgent action to tackle these intolerable tisks, and for 'the NDA to halt reprocessing as soon as possible, even if this requires contracts to be broken' [p.21]

It argues that the NDA's fitness for purpose should be questioned, and asks whether the NDA is really the right body to be searching for a disposal site for nuclear waste.

It also calls for the establishment of a new Independent Overseeing Body for nuclear waste storage, with Cumbria County council taking a lead role.

Dr Ruth Balogh of West Cumbria & North Lakes Friends of the Earth said:

'The safety of Cumbrians and the wider world must come first. Reprocessing has been a disaster, with the result that we are in a highly dangerous situation. We urge the government and all our elected representatives in Cumbria to study this report and consider its recommendations for a safer nuclear industry'

The Briefing analyses the performance of the THORP Plutonium Separation Plant, the High-level Waste Treatment Facilities, and the treatment of solid wastes.

It says that in 2008 the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate said Liquid high Level Waste Storage tanks needed replacement 'with the utmost urgency', but now the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) [1] says these tanks 'may no longer represent the 'as low as reasonably practicable' position with regard to hazard reduction activities on the site'. The report says:

'Failure by the NDA and its private partner bodies has been responded to by the ONR changing its recommendations, rather than using its regulatory powers to ensure action. ONR seems to be sanctioning cost-cutting exercise rather than insisting on maximum safety.' [report p.14].

The poor performance of reprocessing at Sellafield lies at the heart of the problems, causing build-up of dangerous waste and cost over-runs. The report concludes:

'Sellafield and the NDA have been carrying out an expensive and dangerous balancing act in order to complete its reprocessing contracts ... Because the nuclear regulator refuses to countenance ordering an end to reprocessing we remain at risk' [p 19 - 20].

The NDA's Sellafield site, already criticised by the Public Accounts Committee for delivering only 2 of its 14 projects on schedule, is further criticised for its commercial operations. Research by the Cumbrian group CORE shows that it has missed 94% of its commercial targets since the NDA took over in 2005 [report P 6].

In 2001 the NII issued the then site operators BNFL with a legal requirement to reduce the level of dangerous heat-generating high level waste down to a residual or buffer level by 2015. They were supposed to reduce stocks from 1600 cubic metres to 200. It said 'any shortfall would be publicly unacceptable'. But in 2011 the ONR actually increased the permitted level to almost 3 times the previous limits. This decision was to provide Sellafield with 'the flexibility to accelerate the hazard reduction' [report p 13].

/end

Notes:
1. The ONR replaced the NII as the regulator.

Contact for more information: Dr. Ruth Balogh
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