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Whitehaven News | News | Sellafield is fined as workers exposed to highly toxic radiation
SELLAFIELD has been fined £75,000 over a catalogue of safety failures that led to two workers being exposed to a “serious and significant” dose of highly toxic radiation.
Two men working for Workington building company Stobbarts were subject to “airborne radioactive contamination” when plutonium escaped from a floor they were drilling at the site in July 2007.
The men were carrying out work to remove plutonium from the floor of the site’s Central Waste Handling Facility, which was to be converted into offices.
One worker was operating the drill, while the other was spraying water on the area to clear dust.
They were both wearing PVC suits and respirators and were working inside a protective tent.
Sellafield fined £75,000 for exposing staff to nuclear contamination | Environment | guardian.co.uk
The operator of Sellafield, Britain's biggest nuclear complex, was today handed a fine and legal costs totalling more than £100,000 following safety lapses which led to the radioactive contamination of staff.
The successful prosecution of Sellafield Ltd by the Health and Safety Executive will tarnish the reputation of an industry trying to win public confidence for a new generation of power plants.
The business, controlled by state-owned British Nuclear Group when the incident occurred in July 2007, has since been taken over by three private contractors, Amec, Areva and URS Washington, who work under the Nuclear Management Partners banner.
Sellafield faces fine for exposing staff to radioactivity | Environment | guardian.co.uk
The safety record of Britain's nuclear industry will be tarnished tomorrow when managers at the Sellafield complex in Cumbria are fined for exposing staff to radioactive contamination.
A substantial penalty is expected to be imposed by Carlisle crown court following a successful criminal prosecution brought by the Health and Safety Executive.
Concerns about conditions at the plant come just a week after an eminent group of scientists and military experts described as "ludicrous" the manner in which 100 tonnes of plutonium was stored at Sellafield – and at a time when the wider nuclear industry is trying to build public support for a new generation of reactors.
Sellafield decommissioning job worth £1.5bn attracts big hitters | News | Construction News
A host of international firms are lining up to battle for a package of decommissioning works at Sellafield that could be worth as much as £1.5 billion.
Balfour Beatty is understood to be bidding for the three-phase contract in a joint venture with Amec and French nuclear specialist Areva.
Meanwhile, Costain is believed to have teamed up with US engineering giant Fluor to bid for the job, which will eventually see the construction of a highly active liquid effluent facility.
Laing O’Rourke is also thought to be in a consortium with Jacobs, Nuvia and Doosan Babcock to tender for the work – valued at between £250 million and £1.5bn.
North West Evening Mail | Campaign against Sellafield
CAMPAIGNERS from Norway descended on Westminster to demand Sellafield be closed down amid fears an accident at the site would cause devastation across the globe.
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CAMPAIGN: Campaigners from Norway protest against Sellafield at Westminster
The group claimed the quality of the radioactive waste is poor and they fear there will be an accident at the site.
Frank Storelv, from Oslo, said 90 per cent of wind blows from the south west and if there was an explosion or accident at Sellafield, one or two days later the radioactive waste would be carried to the west coast of Norway.
Nuclear firms pay £70m for Sellafield site - Business News, Business - The Independent
A multinational consortium of energy companies is paying £70m for land adjacent to Sellafield suitable for building a new atomic power station.
Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE), Spain's Iberdrola and France's GDF Suez have acquired the 470-acre site, which is the fourth piece of land to be sold by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). The consortium plans to build an installation with a capacity of up to 3.6 gigawatts, starting in 2015.
The SSE/Iberdrola/GDF group is the third new entrant to the UK nuclear industry after France's EDF bought British Energy for £12.5bn in January, and a consortium of Germany's RWE Npower and E.ON was successful in earlier NDA land auctions in April.
SSE/Iberdrola/GDF was also a bidder in previous auctions for land at Wylfa, Oldbury and Bradwell. But the group pulled out after competition became so fierce it ran for six weeks rather than the expected one, and netted the Government a whopping £387m rather than the expected £100m.
Trio buy Sellafield site to build giant nuclear plant - Telegraph
A consortium of utility companies is planning to build a giant nuclear power station at Sellafield, the former home of the world’s oldest reactor, as part of Britain’s next generation of cleaner energy sources.
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) said yesterday that it had sold the right to develop the land for a 3.6 gigawatt station to Scottish and Southern, Iberdrola and GDF Suez for £70m.
Times & Star | News | Sellafield hit by another plant failure
SELLAFIELD has been hit by another plant failure but there is said to be no impact on site safety or operations.
breaking news
Evaporator B known as Bravo and which treats highly radioactive liquor has failed for the second time in six months due to coil corrosion.
Sellafield’s operators stress, however, that as no fuel reprocessing is currently taking place production is not affected and there are no implications for health and safety.
North West Evening Mail | Sellafield wants to increase discharges
SELLAFIELD has applied to raise the limit on the amount of radioactive discharge it can release into the air.
The site has applied to the Environment Agency for a five-fold increase in gas discharges known as Antimony 125 from the Magnox reprocessing plant.
The agency says there is no danger to the public, but the move has drawn criticism from the anti-nuclear group Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment (Core).
Core’s Martin Forwood said: “We deplore any increase in environmental discharges but Sellafield has got the agency over a barrel.
“We are now paying the price for the industry’s abject failure to develop an alternative to reprocessing Magnox fuel.”
Whitehaven News | N-waste to be sent back overseas Add your comments
HIGH-LEVEL radioactive waste built up at Sellafield from fuel reprocessing over the years will soon be sent back to foreign customers.
This is a milestone for both the nuclear industry and the British government, who hope the move will dispel claims that Sellafield was destined to become “the world’s atomic dustbin”.
The waste comes from the fuel Sellafield has reprocessed over 30 years after removing the plutonium and uranium energy products.
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority says it will reduce the stockpile of high level waste stored at Sellafield.
All UK reprocessing contracts with foreign customers since 1976 have included an option for the waste to be returned to “country of origin” and 10 years later the British government decided the option should be taken up.
North West Evening Mail| Radiation questions
MP Tim Farron will call for Sellafield’s compensation scheme for radiation-linked diseases to be extended to the wider population.
The nuclear industry scheme to compensate workers or their dependents for diseases which may be radiation-linked was set up by BNFL and the unions at Sellafield in 1982.
Compensation is paid on a balance of possibilities (20 per cent and over) that a cancer may have been induced by occupational exposure to radiation.
A total of £6.2m has so far been paid out. Many of the cases were linked to Sellafield, but the scheme has now been widened to include all nuclear radiation workers.
Radiation Free Lakeland is calling for the scheme to be extended to the wider population – within at least a 5km radius of Sellafield.
Mr Farron, the Liberal Democrat MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale, will ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change if he will bring forward proposals to extend the scheme for radiation-linked diseases.
Whitehaven News | Sellafield discharge breached
RADIOACTIVE discharges into the air from Sellafield appear to have been breached.
Source of the discharges is the Magnox reprocessing plant which was shutdown earlier in the year because it was in danger of going over the legal limits.
But operators Sellafield Ltd told The Whitehaven News yesterday: “It seems likely that we will have exceeded the limit up to the end of August. We won’t get confirmation for another six weeks after all the analysis has been done but we think we have gone through it and have written to the Environment Agency to that effect.”
Management have decided not to close the Magnox plant for a second time because there is no hazard from the higher levels of discharge.
North West Evening Mail | Fire and leaks at N-plant, yard examined in report
FIFTEEN fires or coolant leaks have been reported in Cumbrian nuclear installations – accounting for almost 10 per cent of the total across the country, according to the government.
Information released by the Department for Energy and Climate Change shows there have been 81 coolant leaks and 80 fires recorded at UK nuclear installations since 2001 – with almost one in ten in Cumbria.
Four fires are listed for Barrow, including two from earlier this year when there was a fire on the submarine Ambush during welding/grinding operations and another on the bridge fin of Astute.
BBC NEWS | UK | Sellafield must 'improve systems'
Sellafield managers have been told to make improvements after a radioactive leak went undetected for more than a year.
In January condensation was found to have been dripping from a pipe at the nuclear reprocessing plant in Cumbria.
The Environment Agency has issued an enforcement notice requiring improved equipment and maintenance routines.
Sellafield Ltd said no-one was exposed to the "low-level radiation", and that improvements were already being made.
Whitehaven News | Radiation link to death of campaigner
RADIATION is thought to have contributed to the death of the former Sellafield worker who was jailed in 2004 for a bomb hoax at the site’s visitors centre.
Duncan Ball, who worked in the Magnox plant for 20 years, died on July 17. He was 49.
In 2007 Mr Ball was diagnosed with a bone marrow cancer (multiple myeloma) and The Whitehaven News understands he received an interim payment from the nuclear industry scheme to compensate workers or their dependents for diseases which may be radiation-linked.
The scheme was set up by BNFL and the unions at Sellafield in 1982 and compensation is paid on a balance of possibilities (20 per cent and over) that a cancer may have been induced by occupational exposure to radiation.
News & Star | Mox ‘under scrutiny’
THE future of Sellafield’s controversial under-achieving Mox plant which support around 1,000 jobs on the site is still on the line.
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority says in its annual report out this week that “on a less positive note the performance of the Sellafield mixed oxide plant (SMP) remains under close scrutiny by the NDA Board.
“The NDA is in the process of examining options for the future of the plant in conjunction with Sellafield Ltd,” reports acting chief executive Richard Waite.
Against a target of eight Mox fuel assemblies, only two had been produced.
Both the Thorp and Magnox reprocessing plants also failed to meet targets.
BBC NEWS | UK | Sellafield admits exposure case
Sellafield has pleaded guilty to health and safety breaches after two contractors were exposed to radiation.
The workers were refurbishing a floor at the site's plutonium finishing and storage plant in July 2007 when they were exposed to airborne contamination.
Sellafield Ltd admitted failing to discharge its duty under the Health and Safety Act 1974 at Whitehaven Magistrates' Court on Friday.
Whitehaven News | Sellafield ‘blackmail’ case goes to tribunal Add your comments
ALLEGATIONS that “bribery and blackmail” were used to coerce Sellafield workers into accepting a pay deal are to be heard at an industrial tribunal.
Two unions – GMB and Unite – are bringing the case against Sellafield Ltd aimed at winning financial compensation for thousands of members on the site.
This is believed to be the first hearing of its kind in British industry.
“It is going to tribunal and we are just waiting for a date,” said Whitehaven-based GMB regional organiser Steve Gibbons.
Whitehaven News | 50-year-old Sellafield nuclear leak is finally plugged
A LEAK of radioactivity at Sellafield which has lasted for half a century has finally been plugged.
The radioactive water is known to have seeped into the ground under the nuclear site for up to 50 years.
The public was first told about it in the 1970s, since which time it has been monitored regularly at safe levels.
But it is one of the radiation sources which has led to contamination on local beaches.
The liquid has seeped from a crack in one of four huge concrete waste tanks which, in the past, processed effluent before being discharged into the Irish Sea.
Cumberland News | Rise in nuclear discharges into the air Add your comments
A RISE in radioactive discharges into the air is causing another problem at Sellafield, it was confirmed to The Whitehaven News yesterday.
Increased levels have come from the Magnox reprocessing plant. For the last five weeks it has had to close to avoid exceeding the discharge limit.
The plant has just started up again but Sellafield Ltd has applied to the Environment Agency for a new authorisation to raise the discharge limit.
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