New nuclear waste plant to go ahead at Sellafield

Jonathan Leake / Sunday Times London 23sep01

A CONTROVERSIAL nuclear reprocessing plant capable of generating hundreds of tons of highly radioactive plutonium and uranium from spent nuclear fuel is expected to win government approval this week.

The mixed oxide (Mox) plant at the Sellafield site of British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) has been mothballed since completion in 1999. It followed concerns over cost, the risk of contamination and revelations that BNFL had forged safety documents on a pilot facility.

This weekend officials at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs handed a report to Margaret Beckett, the environment secretary, recommending that she allow Mox to start operations. She is expected to give her approval, but is understood to have asked for more information on safety in the light of the terror attacks in America. Studies have shown that a similar attack on Sellafield could render much of northern England uninhabitable.

"We have made a new and careful study of the potential risk from an aircraft attack," said the environment department. It was unable to comment on the latest report.

The Mox plant is designed to work in conjunction with another controversial Sellafield facility - the thermal oxide reprocessing plant (Thorp). Spent fuel rods are first treated in Thorp to remove waste products and extract uranium and plutonium.

If Beckett grants the Mox plant a licence, it would mix the uranium and plutonium into fuel pellets suitable for powering the 420 pressurised water reactors around the world. It would also generate pure uranium, which, like the pellets, could have weapons potential. Environmental groups fear that the pellets could be used to make a crude nuclear device.

This weekend, Friends of the Earth said it would seek a judicial review if Beckett approved the Mox plant. "The attacks in America show how vulnerable we are," it said.

Environmental groups also say the strongest arguments against Mox are the cost to the taxpayer. BNFL has spent £473m building Mox, and studies predict it will make only about £300m in operating profit over a decade or more.