Plans to re-examine licences authorising the disposal of radioactive waste at the Sellafield nuclear plant were issued by the Environment Agency in Britain yesterday.
The principal aim of the document produced by the environment "watchdog" is to secure "continuous improvement" in the protection of the public and environment from the effect of radioactive discharge from Sellafield, which is operated by British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL).
A public consultation on any proposed changes in the levels of radioactive discharge authorised is expected to begin later in the spring, while separate proposals for regulating technetium-99 (a radioactive element) discharges from the plant are expected to be ready within six months.
New limits on technetium-99, which is discharged into the Irish Sea, were implemented last month, reducing the annual quota. The aim is to further reduce these discharges.
Outlining the task in its document, the chief executive of the environment agency, Mr Ed Gallagher, said the review would consider gaseous, liquid and all other radioactive discharge levels from the site.
The move is part of a comprehensive review of radioactive emissions from Sellafield implemented by the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr John Prescott, and the Agriculture Minister, Mr Nick Brown.
It also comes just days after the Health and Safety Executive announced that BNFL and BNFL Engineering faced prosecution after a report revealed safety data on fuel rods had been falsified.
The Environment Agency said it would pay close attention to the British government's commitments under the Ospar (Oslo-Paris) Convention on radioactive emissions.
The agency pointed out that the Department of Environment Transport and the Regions (DETR) had said that by the end of 2020 it intended that radioactive discharges would be reduced "to a level where the additional concentrations in the marine environment above historical levels are close to zero."
Members of the public, local authorities and interested parties will be invited to give their views on the methodology and scope of the review over the next two months. Public "surgeries" will also be held in west Cumbria, which will allow local people to discuss the scope of the review with members of the environment agency.
The full text of the document can be found at: environment- agency.gov.uk
Reuters reports from Berlin:
The German Environment Ministry said yesterday it would review permits already granted for the reprocessing of German nuclear waste at Sellafield after a safety report identified "systematic management failure" at the plant.
"The matter raises a whole range of questions," the German ministry spokesman said. "At issue is probably a systematic neglect of safety standards". Along with La Hague in France, Sellafield is one of two plants which reprocess German nuclear waste. Germany, which derives around a third of its energy from nuclear fuel, does not have any reprocessing facilities.
It was not immediately clear what would happen to contracts already signed between BNFL and Germany's privately-owned nuclear operators if permits were cancelled.
Separately, the Preussen Elektra nuclear group said yesterday it had noticed "deficits in documentation" relating to four fuel rods at its Unterweser plant that had been treated at Sellafield but said the rods themselves were in order.
The state government of Lower Saxony, where the Unterweser plant is located, said it had demanded a written confirmation from Preussen Elektra that the documents about the rods had not been actively falsified.
The issue of waste reprocessing led to angry exchanges between Britain and Germany last year after it emerged that the German government's long-term plan to pull out of nuclear power could endanger lucrative contracts held by Sellafield.
The German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, finally pledged the policy would not threaten any existing contracts after the British government made it clear it would defend BNFL's interests.