In one of three damning reports issued today, Inspectors from the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) have identified years of widespread manipulation of quality assurance data for plutonium-based MOX fuel manufactured at Sellafield. Their investigation of the small demonstration plant has revealed levels of malpractice on a far greater scale than previously thought. Since evidence of quality assurance falsification of Japanese fuel first came to light last September, five process workers have been sacked. With Union claims that the fired men were made scapegoats, calls for sackings at mangement level have intensified and NII’s report will be seen as giving support for those calls. A Safety Audit of the Sellafield site, and a report on BNFL’s management of High Level Waste are also published today. The criticisms contained in all three NII reports offer cold comfort to BNFL, with the company portrayed as cavalier in their approach to operational management. A CORE spokesperson said today “ The Company has been caught cheating its customers in a demonstration plant which has demonstrated nothing more than a chronic disease of deception. We believe this is just the tip of the iceberg and suspect similar malpractices are rife throughout the site. If they can lie to their customers, they can lie to anyone and in the interests of safety the Government must now step in to stop Sellafield’s reprocessing operations which provide the plutonium which BNFL dishonestly peddles around the world.” Today’s revelations raise further fundamental questions about the MOX Demonstration Facility (MDF), the economic viability of the new Sellafield MOX plant, the need to reprocess spent fuel at all, and the integrity of the company at all levels. CORE added that all these issues had to be closely scrutinised before any potential part-privatisation of BNFL was seriously considered. For further information contact CORE on 01229 833851 or mobile 0789 999 1146. Notes for Editors. In six years of operation since 1994, MDF has produced just 36 MOX fuel assemblies weighing a total of less than 20 tonnes. With an 8 tonne per year production capacity, MDF has been operating at less than 40% of its capacity, despite BNFL’s claims that the company is overwhelmed by MOX demand. From a total of 6 deliveries of MOX fuel to its customers in Europe and Japan, 3 shipments have contained either faulty fuel or fuel with falsified data. The Government announced last year that the new Sellafield MOX plant, with a production capacity of 120 tonnes per year, has secured orders for just 6.7% of capacity.