40 `incidents' last year

THERE were 40 reported "incidents" at the Sellafield plant in 1996, BNFL figures released at the weekend conference show.

THERE were 40 reported "incidents" at the Sellafield plant in 1996, BNFL figures released at the weekend conference show.

Some 17 of these reported incidents were in the category of "no safety significance" according to the International Nuclear Event Scale agreed by the majority of nuclear states.

The other 23 incidents fell into category one classified "anomaly" occurrences. The highest category is seven, for a major accident. Last year there were no incidents reported higher than category one, the conference was told.