Nuclear safety watchdog criticises Sellafield's emergency readiness

[xchrom]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/dec/26/sellafield-emergency-readiness-nuclear-watchdog


Sellafield nuclear power station in Cumbria. Photograph: Christopher Thomond

A damning report by safety experts has revealed that staff at Britain's most important nuclear site did "not have the level of capability required to respond to nuclear emergencies effectively".

In response to a freedom of information request, the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), an arm of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), said errors by senior fire officers in a preparedness exercise at Sellafield "could have led to delays in responding to the nuclear emergency and a prolonged release of radioactive material off-site".

The criticism is revealed at a critical time for the nuclear industry, which is trying to build public confidence after the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plant while drawing up plans to construct a new generation of atomic power stations in Britain.

It is also an embarrassment to Nuclear Management Partners, the private sector consortium which runs Sellafield and is part-owned by Areva, the French engineering company that has prepared the design for a proposed reactor at Hinkley Point in Somerset.

[PamW]

1. Sellafield is part of the UK's nuclear weapons program.

Sellafield is actually part of the UK's nuclear weapons program.

The counterpart to Sellafield in the USA would be the Hanford Reservation in Washington State, or
the Savannah River complex in South Carolina.

Too many don't draw the proper distinction between a facility meant for nuclear weapons production
and commercial facilities made to produce power.

Contrary to the oft claimed mantra of the anti-nukes; they aren't one and the same.

PamW