British Nuclear Fuels has yet to account to the EU Commission for the nuclear material stored at the Sellafield plant, writes Nuala Ahern
The UK Energy Minister, Stephen Timms, states in The Irish Times (May 12th) that he wants to see a safe and secure Sellafield. He would do well to address not only Irish concerns but also those of the European Commission.
The Commission has given the UK government until June 1st to come up with an adequate response to the concerns about the nuclear site or face legal action in the European Court of Justice, the EU's highest court. It also plans to take the UK to the court for failing to provide proper information about nuclear material stored at the plant and for not giving European safety inspectors adequate access. I raised these issues in detailed questions to the Commission in 2003.
The Commission's concerns centre on Sellafield's 50-year-old nuclear storage pond, B30 - estimated to contain 1.3 tonnes of plutonium. Inspectors from Euratom have complained about poor access to the site and the unsatisfactory operating records provided by British Nuclear Fuels.
The pond, which was closed in 1992, has been left with underwater nuclear waste, which is leaking into the surrounding environment. In fact, European Commission inspectors had been unable to gain full access to B30.
Also, according to the Commission, BNFL has consistently failed to produce and keep operating records which would permit proper accounting for the nuclear material contained at the B30 site.
Huge discrepancies in estimates of how much plutonium, uranium and radioactive waste were placed in the open pond have caused considerable alarm. BNFL has no clear idea how much nuclear material is in the pond. As a result, EU inspectors are unable to verify that Sellafield's plutonium is not being diverted for use in weapons. It takes only a few kilogrammes of plutonium to make a nuclear bomb capable of wiping out a city.
The inspectors are also worried about the control of nuclear plants in the new EU member-states - some of these plants are in very poor condition. It should be self-evident that the EU cannot ask the Slovaks, Czechs and Lithuanians to improve their nuclear sites if nothing is done in countries like the UK.
Along with plutonium and uranium the pond contains a host of other radioactive wastes like caesium and strontium. It is all meant to be under strict safeguards and inspected by Euratom to provide an assurance that it is only used for civil purposes.
The UK energy minister must tackle, not only the legacy of waste and neglect at Sellafield, but also the hazardous high-level liquid waste, which the Radiological Protection Institute Ireland and the British Nuclear inspectorate agree should be made safe. The waste is a direct outcome of plutonium reprocessing, which Mr Timms is seeking to defend.
It is not enough for Mr Timms to meet and talk to his Irish counterparts. He must take the kind of action which will see the risk contained.
Experts agree that if the boiling liquid waste were processed into glass blocks by the vitrification process, it would remain extremely radioactive but would be inert and not able to explode in a plume of radioactivity if an accident or terror attack were to occur.
Of course, instead of doing any of this Mr Timms is hurrying off to Japan on on May 16th to try to persuade Japanese officials to reactivate Sellafield contracts, contracts that were cancelled following the falsification of documentation relating to nuclear fuel shipments to Japan almost five years ago.
Mr Timms, no doubt, will be attempting to persuade the Japanese that Sellafield has cleaned up its act. The Japanese should be reminded that the European Commission does not lightly threaten to take a member-state to the European Court. The continuous failure to produce and keep operating records to account for all nuclear material at the B30 site should be a warning that BNFL continues to operate in an unacceptable and dangerous fashion.
• Nuala Ahern is Green Party MEP for Leinster and will stand down this year