Information received by CORE from THORP workers describes recent events within the plant which remains closed following a blockage in the problematic waste pipe system which has already lost BNFL six months reprocessing this financial year. BNFL’s public announcements about the blockage are at complete odds with the whistleblowers’ testimony which highlights: A THORP closure of at least several weeks or extended closure for up to 8 months if NII inspectors order the system to be replaced because of design faults. Blocked pipes found to contain materials (fuel assembly springs) which should have been filtered out at an earlier stage. Two “run for your life” criticality evacuations of workers when the blockage was being cleared The company’s deliberate reduction of trained operators within THORP. BNFL’s failure to disclose the worker evacuation of the Vitrification Plant. CORE’s information was received by letter (attached) and by anonymous phone call. The letter is the latest in a sequence from the same THORP source who has proved highly accurate in the past. The phone call last week identified changes to operator manning requirements, now already in place, whereby at times of shortage of trained operators, gaps will be filled by untrained workers. A CORE spokesperson said today: “ With another long shut-down in prospect, the bottom line for BNFL is that THORP is now incapable of completing the baseload orders on time. Arguments about contracts being secure or insecure are therefore academic and BNFL must now come clean about the increasingly frequent worker evacuations at Sellafield and the compromises to THORP safety claimed by workers “. Any BNFL plan to remedy the current pipe defects must be approved by NII Inspectors who must also grant final permission to re-start shearing and dissolution operations once the repair work is completed to NII’s satisfaction. 7 weeks after the blockage BNFL are still determining the cause and as of today no remedial plan has been received by NII. note: Since its 1994 start-up THORP has reprocessed 1835 tonnes. If the current stoppage extends for 8 months, the balance of the 7000 tonne baseload contracts – 5165 tonnes – must therefore be reprocessed in 4.5 years – at a rate of 1150 tonnes per year. This rate is around the full design capacity of the plant, was never envisaged by BNFL and is unlikely to be achieved given THORP’s past and present record and the problems known still to exist within the plant.