Radiation spike forces nuke plant to stay understaffed
1 Feb 2014 5:54 AM IST
Sellafield, the site of Britain’s worst nuclear accident in 1957 and once the producer of plutonium for nuclear bombs, said its investigation had shown there was nothing wrong with any of its operations. Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas that comes from rocks and soil.
‘The number one priority for us is, at all times, safe secure stewardship of the Sellafield site, which is the most complex and challenging nuclear site in Europe,’ it said.
The facility, just outside Britain’s striking Lake District national park on the coast of the Irish sea in northwest England, had continued to operate normally during the morning and both the operator and the government had said there was no risk to the public.
A higher than normal radiation reading was logged overnight via an air monitor at a perimeter fence.
‘Standard weekend working operations will continue, with day staff due back in on Monday as normal,’ it added.
Sellafield, a patchwork of grey buildings, industrial cylinders and cooling towers surrounded by grassland about 300 miles northwest of London, said the decision to keep staff at home was conservative.
NUCLEAR SAFETY
Once the source of plutonium for Britain’s nuclear bombs, Sellafield was the site of the October 1957 Windscale fire, Britain’s worst nuclear accident, when a plutonium reactor burned for five days, belching radiation into the atmosphere.
It is the site of a civilian nuclear power station that is being decommissioned by a consortium of British company Amec, French group Areva, and U.S. firm URS.
Now one of two nuclear fuel reprocessing plants in Europe along with Areva’s La Hague plant in France, Sellafield receives spent fuel from power plants across the world, including Japan. It employs over 10,000 people.
Nuclear experts and academics had said initial information available to the public indicated this was a minor incident that had little in common with the 2011 Fukushima and 1986 Chernobyl disasters.
‘This is a prudent precaution until the cause is known and the situation rectified,’ said Richard Wakeford, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Manchester, of the initial decision to withdraw non-essential staff.
‘It’s a different situation here than it was at Fukushima and Chernobyl because you haven’t got operating reactors.’
‘The number one priority for us is, at all times, safe secure stewardship of the Sellafield site, which is the most complex and challenging nuclear site in Europe,’ it said.
The facility, just outside Britain’s striking Lake District national park on the coast of the Irish sea in northwest England, had continued to operate normally during the morning and both the operator and the government had said there was no risk to the public.
A higher than normal radiation reading was logged overnight via an air monitor at a perimeter fence.
‘Standard weekend working operations will continue, with day staff due back in on Monday as normal,’ it added.
Sellafield, a patchwork of grey buildings, industrial cylinders and cooling towers surrounded by grassland about 300 miles northwest of London, said the decision to keep staff at home was conservative.
NUCLEAR SAFETY
Once the source of plutonium for Britain’s nuclear bombs, Sellafield was the site of the October 1957 Windscale fire, Britain’s worst nuclear accident, when a plutonium reactor burned for five days, belching radiation into the atmosphere.
It is the site of a civilian nuclear power station that is being decommissioned by a consortium of British company Amec, French group Areva, and U.S. firm URS.
Now one of two nuclear fuel reprocessing plants in Europe along with Areva’s La Hague plant in France, Sellafield receives spent fuel from power plants across the world, including Japan. It employs over 10,000 people.
Nuclear experts and academics had said initial information available to the public indicated this was a minor incident that had little in common with the 2011 Fukushima and 1986 Chernobyl disasters.
‘This is a prudent precaution until the cause is known and the situation rectified,’ said Richard Wakeford, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Manchester, of the initial decision to withdraw non-essential staff.
‘It’s a different situation here than it was at Fukushima and Chernobyl because you haven’t got operating reactors.’
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