THE British nuclear industry has been damned by the government's
Environmental Agency for its "lack of commitment to environmental
protection" on the eve of facing prosecution in Scotland for a leak of
radioactive waste from a nuclear power station.
Documents from the Environment Agency, the government's regulator in
England, obtained by the Sunday Herald reveal that the crisis within
British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) - the battered state-owned nuclear company -
spreads much wider and runs much deeper than previously thought.
The difficulties are not limited to data falsification and sabotage at the
Sellafield nuclear complex in Cumbria, but concern the safety of BNFL's
plants across the country, including some in Scotland. One BNFL facility,
the Chapelcross nuclear power station in Dumfriesshire, is this week
facing prosecution for a leak of radioactive waste.
The Sunday Herald can reveal that the Scottish Environment Protection
Agency (SEPA) is planning to send a report to the procurator fiscal within
the next few days about an accident at Chapelcross last September. The
report will allege that BNFL breached the Radioactive Substances Act by
allowing radioactive waste to leak into a stream.
A waste sump overflowed in September causing hundreds of gallons of
contaminated water to pour into the Gullielands Burn which flows through
the Chapelcross site. SEPA's latest move, which could lead to BNFL being
prosecuted and fined, follows earlier action forcing the plant to clean up
its act, as first reported by the Sunday Herald last autumn. Our new
investigation has uncovered an alarming series of environmental problems
throughout BNFL's business, including controversy over plans to dismantle
a research reactor in East Kilbride and warnings that flasks of highly
toxic uranium may accidentally explode. We have also uncovered a hitherto
unreported accident at a Scottish nuclear power plant run by another
company, British Energy. Last December, there was an undisclosed leak of
radioactive waste to the Clyde from the Hunterston B nuclear power station
in Ayrshire operated by British Energy.British Energy was sent a warning
letter by SEPA for breaking radiation safety rules by allowing a 20-40
feet high fountain of contaminated cooling water to escape down the drains
and into the Clyde estuary.
British Energy admitted to the Sunday Herald it had infringed safety
regulations but stressed this had been un intentional. "Steps have already
been taken so any radioactivity would be detected before it becomes a
hazard," a company spokesman said.
These revelations will put further pressure on the government to clean up
or close down BNFL,
which is enduring by far the most serious crisis in its 30-year history.
Last week partial privatisation of the company was postponed beyond the
next election in the wake of mounting attacks on the company for faking
checks on plutonium fuel rods. BNFL's most damning critic is the
Environment Agency. "There have been a number of incidents at BNFL sites
which have led the agency to question seriously the competence of BNFL's
management of radioactive waste and its commitment to environmental
protection," says a report to the agency's board meeting last month.
The agency has taken legal action for breaches of environmental rules
against BNFL plants at Springfields near Preston, at Hinkley Point in
Somerset, and at Sellafield. Incidents at Hinkley Point were "particularly
serious", says the agency, because BNFL misreported its radiation
discharges and broke the legal limit for emitting the radioactive gas,
carbon 14.
In a letter to BNFL in March, the Environment Agency's director of
operations, Archie Robertson, said his inspectors were concerned that
"serious shortcomings may be developing in BNFL's management systems as a
consequence of resource limitations, a lack of awareness amongst staff of
waste disposal authorisations issued by the agency and a general lack of
recognition of the importance of environmental issues." One example he
gave was the leakage of radioactivity from Sellafield caused by pigeons.
The birds roosted in contaminated buildings and then flew through holes in
the roofs to a garden in a nearby village where they were fed by
bird-lovers. BNFL had to decontaminate the garden.
In papers posted on the agency's website, Robertson also accused BNFL of
being "less than co-operative" in providing information. "I find it
difficult to accept BNFL's attitude towards the
request for information as one that would be expected from an
organisation with a positive commitment to environmental management," he
said.
Senior officials from the Environment Agency are due to meet with BNFL's
new chief executive, Norman Askew to discuss the agency's criticisms. The
agency's attack on BNFL's competence will fuel mounting opposition to the
company's operations from Scandinavia, Denmark and Ireland, which have
long complained about Sellafield polluting their shores. Radioactivity
from Sellafield, dumped in the Irish Sea since the 1950s, can now be
detected around the Scottish coast, in Norway, on the north coast of
Russia and across the Arctic. Denmark and Ireland have lodged a motion
with an international convention on marine pollution to close down nuclear
reprocessing plants at Sellafield.
BNFL is also coming under fire for its involvement in decommissioning the
research reactor run by Scottish universities at East Kilbride. The
company has won the £3 million contract to dispose of 100 cubic metres of
low-level and one cubic metre of medium-level radioactive debris at the
site, due to begin in July.
Meanwhile a new study by the French government's nuclear safety agency,
IPSN, discloses that flasks used to transport thousands of tonnes of
uranium hexafluoride around the world from BNFL's fuel fabrication plant
at Springfields are at risk of exploding in a fire. Tests show that flasks
containing the toxic compound, which is used to make fuel for nuclear
power stations, would rupture within 175 seconds of the outbreak of a fire
"in the most favourable case". Uranium hexafluoride is very dangerous
because, as well as being radioactive, it reacts with air to produce
hydrofluoric acid, a gas which destroys the lungs.
BNFL stoutly defends itself on all these issues. "I don't think we are all
bad but we would be nuts to say that we have nothing to learn," said Roger
Coates, the company's UK head of environment, health and safety.He thought
the Environment Agency's criticisms were "broadly fair". BNFL was in the
process of restructuring its management to address the problems, he said.
"We do recognise that the way forward has to be different from the past."
