In a letter to the NDA’s Chief Executive Dr Ian Roxburgh, campaign group CORE has urged the new owners of THORP to cut their losses on THORP and permanently close the plant. Justifying its call, CORE has highlighted two central reasons why the re-start of operations when and if the fractured pipe in THORP’s Head-End is repaired, would defy all logic and common sense.
Firstly, with THORP’s current shutdown expected to last for many months, the inevitable outcome will be a dramatic reduction in the plant’s profitability and a further falling behind schedule of a plant already two years behind original projections. This will result in a significant reduction of revenues to the NDA with the plant becoming a liability on the new owner’s books.
Secondly, with almost all contracts for reprocessing foreign fuel now completed, THORP’s operational future consists of reprocessing of spent fuel from British Energy’s AGR power stations. Because of the nature of these UK contracts, reprocessing AGR fuel on its own has been described by BNFL to CORE and other NGO’s as being an ‘uneconomic’. In addition, its reprocessing would unnecessarily produce large volumes of plutonium and uranium for which British Energy has repeatedly said it would have no use. To add these unwanted materials to the burgeoning UK stockpiles already languishing at Sellafield would be a wholly pointless exercise.
In its letter faxed to Dr Roxburgh on 16th May, Campaign Coordinator Martin Forwood said
“ It is difficult to see any merit in adding these materials to the UK stockpile for which no re-use can realistically be forseen. Whilst prolonged and costly (THORP) operations will be a further irritant to overseas customers, the continued operations of a disabled plant will surely be seen by the taxpayer as a profligate waste of public money by the NDA. We therefore urge the NDA to abandon without delay any further reprocessing at the THORP plant which has now become a financial liability and major obstruction to NDA’s much needed clean-up programme for Sellafield “.
CORE has welcomed Dr Roxburgh’s statement to the Sunday Observer (15th May) that, following the THORP accident, plans to review Sellafield operations this year will be brought forward by the NDA.