'Sellafield must provide answers urgently to restore public confidence'

A Northern Ireland MLA has called on the Sellafield nuclear processing plant to restore public confidence by urgently addressing claims of safety fears made in a BBC investigation.

The Panorama programme broadcast on Monday revealed a catalogue of safety concerns at the

Cumbria plant, which lies just across the Irish Sea.

The BBC programme was told that parts of Sellafield regularly have too few staff to operate safely and that radioactive materials have been stored in degrading plastic bottles. It revealed claims that parts of the facility are dangerously rundown.

Sellafield says the site in Cumbria is safe and has been improved with significant investment in recent years.

South Down Ulster Unionist MLA Harold McKee has called for answers, saying it is vital that the public have complete confidence that Sellafield’s work is carried out to the highest safety standards.

“As someone who was born and bred in South Down, I am well aware of the relative proximity of Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant, which is sited literally just across the Irish Sea,” he said.

“Last night’s BBC Panorama programme raised a number of issues regarding safety at Sellafield, and like me, many viewers will have been concerned at the claims that were made.   

“It is obviously extremely important that facilities exist to deal with nuclear waste, and it is vital that the public have complete confidence that this is carried out to the highest safety standards.

“Sellafield must respond urgently to the claims that were made on BBC, and as someone who was elected to represent the people of South Down, I will be seeking answers urgently, in a bid to find out exactly what the situation is.”

The Panorama investigation was sparked when a former senior manager blew the whistle over conditions at the plant.

He said his biggest fear was that a fire could start in one of the nuclear waste silos or one of the processing plants.

"If there is a fire there it could generate a plume of radiological waste that will go across Western Europe,” he said.

The whistle-blower told the BBC that areas of Sellafield - which reprocesses and stores nearly all of the UK's nuclear waste - often didn't have enough staff on duty to meet minimum safety levels.

Minimum staff levels are set for both teams of workers and whole plants and these vary across the site, but in a processing plant of 60 people the safe minimum manning level might be only six workers.

Sellafield's own documents say "any deviation from the safe minimum manning levels is not acceptable".

But figures reported by Panorama show that between July 2012 and July 2013 there were 97 incidents where parts of the site had too few workers on shift.

Sellafield says there are now fewer breaches of safe minimum manning levels but the latest figures show they are still being breached on average once a week.

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,” he said.

Panorama said it discovered that liquid containing plutonium and uranium has been kept in thousands of plastic bottles for years. The bottles were only intended for temporary storage and some of them are degrading.

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

Dr Strong said Sellafield had been working to get the material into proper storage: "The organisation is now focusing on putting right some under-investments of the past in order to support the hazard and waste reduction mission that the site has."

Sellafield later said in a statement that plutonium and uranium samples are "kept securely" and that "to imply that such material is inappropriately managed is simply not true".

Panorama reported seeing leaked reports that suggest Sellafield had problems with emergency management and with maintaining the site's infrastructure. One report from 2013 says "years of neglect" had led to "intolerable conditions".

But Dr Strong rejected these claims, saying: "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."

Panorama - Sellafield's Nuclear Safety Failings was broadcast on BBC One on Monday 5 September at 8.30pm.