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Nuclear Firm To Be Fined Over LeakTue, October 17, 2006Source: AnanovaThe firm that runs Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant will be fined in court after admitting safety breaches following a radioactive leak.The firm that runs Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant will be fined in court after admitting safety breaches following a radioactive leak. Around 83,000 litres of acid containing about 20 tonnes of uranium and 160kg of plutonium escaped from a ruptured pipe into a sealed concrete holding cell at the site in Cumbria. The spillage of spent nuclear fuel was discovered in April 2005 - but may have gone unnoticed for eight months. No one was injured and no radioactive material escaped into the atmosphere after the leak at the Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (Thorp) part of the site. But British Nuclear Group Sellafield Ltd, which runs the facility, later pleaded guilty to three counts of breaching conditions attached to the Sellafield site licence, granted under the Nuclear Installations Act 1965. |