UK's Sellafield fined $929,000 over leaking nuclear pipe: press

London (Platts)--17Oct2006

The operator of Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant was fined
GBP500,000 ($929,000) Monday after 83,000 litres of radioactive acid leaked
out of a broken pipe, British media reported Tuesday. British Nuclear Group
Sellafield was handed the fine after pleading guilty to three counts of
breaching conditions attached to the Sellafield site license.
The "Daily Telegraph" reported the case at Carlisle Crown Court that
heard scientists had taken eight months to detect the spillage when it should
have been discovered "within days."
The acid, which contained 20 tonnes of uranium and 160kg of plutonium,
was destined for a sealed concrete holding site at the west Cumbrian plant but
dripped from a crack in the system, the report said. No one was injured in the
leak and no radiation escaped, but the plant has been closed ever since it was
uncovered, it added.
Monday's punishment comes on top of a GBP2 million penalty imposed on BNG
Sellafield by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority earlier this year.
News of the fine came on the same day that British Energy announced it
was shutting down key nuclear reactors after discovering cracks inside
boilers.
The discovery forced the firm to shut down its Heysham plant in
Lancashire and prepare to shut down two similar reactors at Hinkley and
Hunterston, in Ayrshire.

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