Nuclear Plant Operators Fined

 

Jul 13 - Birmingham Post; Birmingham (UK)

The operators of a nuclear plant were fined pounds 15,000 yesterday for a series of health and safety failings that led to a worker breathing in plutonium.

Two employees at the Dounreay site in Caithness were exposed to the radioactive material as they disposed of contaminated bricks in a laboratory.

The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority admitted breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 at Wick Sheriff Court.

Tests revealed one of the employees received a plutonium intake, which will remain in his system for life.

Fining UKAEA at Wick Sheriff Court, Sheriff David Sutherland said he considered the matter to be a "serious breach".

The court heard the workers, Brian Grant and Jennifer Chretien, had been asked to dispose of the lead bricks on January 12, 2006.

The bricks were not marked as being radioactive and had not been kept in special protective drums.

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