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SELLAFIELD SAFETY CONCERNS


UNCOVERED A BBC Panorama investigation has uncovered a number of safety concerns at the Sellafield nuclear site.


The Panorama team found parts of the site are regularly so understaffed they cannot operate safely and that radioactive materials are stored in degrading plastic bottles.


The investigative documentary uncovered that parts of the facility are dangerously rundown, in spite of Sellafield saying the site in Cumbria is safe and has significantly improved in recent years.


The investigation was prompted by a former senior manager who was worried by conditions at the nuclear site. The whistleblower was concerned that a fire in one of the nuclear waste silos or one of the processing plants could occur because of the poor practices.


Speaking to the BBC, the former employee said: "If there is a fire there it could generate a plume of radiological waste that will go across Western Europe."


The whistle-blower also told the Panorama team that areas of Sellafield - which reprocesses and stores nearly all of the nation's


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nuclear waste - often didn't have enough staff on duty to meet minimum safety levels.


In a processing plant of 60 people the safe minimum manning level should be only six workers, with Sellafield's own documents saying "any deviation from the safe minimum manning levels is not acceptable".


Figures uncovered during the documentary show that between July 2012 and July 2013 there were 97 incidents where parts of the site had too few workers on shift.


Speaking to the BBC, Meg Hillier MP, who chairs the Public Accounts Committee, was shocked by the figures: "It is incredible. It defies belief actually that anything could be working at below safe staffing levels. There is no excuse."


Since the airing of the show figures illustrate safe staffing levels are still being breached on average once a week.


Speaking to Panorama, Dr Rex Strong, Head of Nuclear Safety at Sellafield, denied that operating below these levels was dangerous: "You make alternative arrangements, so the things that have to be done get done. Facilities are shut down if we're not able to operate them in the way that we want to."


Concerns regarding radioactive material storage at the site were also raised, with the show revealing


that liquid containing plutonium and uranium has been kept in thousands of plastic bottles for years, which were only intended for temporary storage.


Sellafield has been working to remove them, but there are still more than 2,000 bottles containing plutonium and uranium on the site.


Dr Strong told Panorama: "The organisation is now focusing on putting right some underinvestments of the past in order to support the hazard and waste reduction mission that the site has."


Sellafield later released a statement saying that plutonium and uranium samples are ‘kept securely’ and that to imply that such material is inappropriately managed is simply not true.


The show also showed leaked reports that suggest Sellafield had problems with emergency management, as well as with maintaining the site's infrastructure. One report from 2013 says "years of neglect" had led to "intolerable conditions".


Dr Strong told the BBC: "There's been huge and sustained investment in infrastructure at Sellafield over recent years.


"Safety is our priority and we are managing a very complex site which has got a great deal of hazardous radioactive materials on it."


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