A new director will oversee safety at the plant
The owners of the Sellafield plant in Cumbria, British Nuclear Fuels, have confirmed that important changes are to be made in its senior management and its safety provisions. All six non-executive directors will be replaced, and a new director will be brought in to oversee safety at the plant. The changes follow a highly critical report by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate in February. It accused BNFL of lacking a safety culture, and it revealed there'd been falsification of data on nuclear material exported from Sellafield to Japan.
Earlier this year Britain's nuclear watchdog accused BNFL of lacking a safety culture. It was revealed that safety data had been falsified on a shipment of nuclear fuel delivered to Sellafield's customers in Japan. This was followed by further problems with other BNFL customers. The crisis has put in doubt not only the part privatisation of BNFL which had been planned by the British government but the whole future of the nuclear reprocessing industry.
Today's BNFL response to the criticisms includes a new two-year plan for the plant will mean a streamlining of management structures and new internal safety auditing procedures. BNFL chief executive Norman Askew describes it as a fresh start for Sellafield, but pressure from environmental groups and countries like Ireland for an end to reprocessing looks set to continue.
