The chief executive of British Nuclear Fuels Ltd, Mr John Taylor, is to leave the company following the publication 11 days ago of a damning report on safety standards at the nuclear processing plant in Sellafield. BNFL in a statement yesterday confirming Mr Taylor's departure said he had constantly promoted safety and operational excellence as the number one priority.
Other executive departures could follow as a BNFL spokesman said a review of management had not yet been completed.
In the official report, management at BNFL was strongly criticised on falsification of key safety data on fuel rods at the plant.
The British nuclear watchdog committee, the Nuclear Installation Inspectorate (NII), part of the British Health and Safety Executive, said "systematic management failure" allowed individual workers to falsify quality assurance records. This could not have occurred had there been a proper safety culture at the plant, it stated.
In yesterday's statement BNFL said Mr Taylor had been with the company for four years and during that time had made a significant contribution in to changing the shape of BNFL as it worked towards becoming a global nuclear company.
The BNFL chairman, Mr Hugh Collum, said: "These are difficult and changing times for BNFL as we respond to the recent critical reports and address the other issues facing the company." He said despite recent setbacks he remained confident that a successful planned partial privatisation would be a key factor in helping to transform the company although this could be delayed.
In Ireland, a spokesman for the Minister of State at the Department of Public Enterprise, Mr Joe Jacobs, said: "Changing the chief executive doesn't rectify the intrinsic difficulties we have with Sellafield which we want shut down. The fact is the resignation of the chief executive is not any comfort to the Government as the plant's problems go much deeper than who is in charge."
The chief executive of the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland, Mr Tom O'Flaherty commented on the resignation: "I suppose it really was to be expected in the light of the very severe criticisms in the report."
He said the report and resignation could only do good in focusing attention on safety but it could not fundamentally change the nature of nuclear reprocessing at Sellafield and they wanted it shut down.
When the report was published, Mr Taylor was in Japan meeting BNFL's main Japanese customer. The Japanese government demanded that BNFL should take the consignment of MOX fuel back to Britain. The German Environment Ministry also announced that it would review permits already granted for the reprocesssing of nuclear waste at Sellafield.