UK health watchdog to prosecute Sellafield nuclear site

London (Platts)--3May2006

The UK's Health and Safety Executive is to bring a criminal prosecution
against British Nuclear Group Sellafield in connection with an incident at
the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing site, the HSE said Wednesday.

The prosecution follows a detailed investigation by HSE's Nuclear
Installations Inspectorate into a leak of radioactive liquor inside a heavily
shielded facility at the Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (Thorp). HSE was
notified of the incident on April 20, 2005.

HSE has applied to the courts for summonses alleging that the company
breached three conditions attached to the Sellafield site license. An initial
hearing is scheduled for June 8, 2006 at Whitehaven Magistrates Court,
Cumbria.

Thorp reprocesses nuclear fuel from overseas and UK second-generation
commercial reactors. The plant has been shut since April 2005. The liquor
leaked into a stainless steel-lined cell with 1.5m thick concrete walls. There
is no evidence of any harm to workers or the public, the HSE said.

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