The Heath & Safety Executive (HSE) North West has announced today that it will be bringing three criminal charges against British Nuclear Group (BNG). The charges relate to the accident last year at Sellafield’s Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (THORP) where 83,000 litres of highly radioactive liquor leaked from a fractured pipe.
The decision to prosecute follows the lengthy investigation into the accident by the HSE’s Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII). HSE has applied to the courts for summonses alleging that, as operators of the THORP plant, BNG breached three Site Licence conditions. The conditions are described by HSE as relating to the making of and compliance with written instructions, to ensuring safety systems are in good working order, and ensuring that radioactive material is contained and – if leaks occur – they are detected and reported.
The initial court hearing is scheduled for Whitehaven Magistrates Court on the 8th June.
Martin Forwood, for CORE, said today: “It would have been an absolute travesty if BNG had escaped prosecution. Its own board of investigation showed extreme negligence and a cavalier attitude to safety by THORP staff at all levels”.
Ownership of THORP was transferred from BNG to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) on 1st April last year, just days before the accident was confirmed to the NII ( 20th April 2005). One year on, the plant remains closed and unrepaired, and plans to repair the damaged section of THORP have still not been approved by the NII. Whilst the NDA, as owners, have flagged up a restart of reprocessing operations this summer, an independent consultant has described the repair option chosen by BNG as an ‘engineering bodge’ and one that will keep THORP closed for at least a further twelve months.