nuclear-news

Safety fears: UK’s secret uranium enrichment plant closed for 2013

Secret UK uranium enrichment plant closed over safety fears  regulators report steel corrosion at Aldermaston plant, which helps enrich uranium for nuclear warheads, Guardian UK , Rob Edwards, 24 Jan 13,  A top-secret plant at Aldermaston that helps to enrich uranium for Britain’s nuclear warheads and fuel for the Royal Navy‘s submarines has been shut down because corrosion has been discovered in its “structural steelwork”, the Guardian can reveal.

The closure has been endorsed by safety regulators who feared the building did not conform to the appropriate standards. The nuclear safety watchdog demands such critical buildings are capable of withstanding “extreme weather and seismic events”, and the plant at Aldermaston failed this test.

They have set a deadline of the end of the year for the problems to be fixed.

Although the closed plant has not been officially named for national security reasons, the Guardian understands it is known as A45. It enriches uranium components for Trident nuclear warheads, and has recently been helping to make the uranium fuel for the Astute generation of nuclear-powered submarines.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) insisted it had contingency plans to cover the loss of the enrichment plant, but a prolonged closure could force the government to buy in materials from the US to ensure there is no disruption to Britain’s nuclear weapons programme.

The government’s safety watchdog, the Office for Nuclear Regulation(ONR), has taken legal enforcement action against AWE, the private consortium that runs the nuclear weapons complex at Aldermaston in Berkshire for the MoD, ordering that the corroded steel be repaired.

Though the corrosion was first found last May and the enforcement notice served in November, the information only emerged via an ONRnewsletter published online in the past few days. This has prompted critics to accuse AWE of not being more forthcoming about a problem it first detected eight months ago…….

AWE is also checking the condition of similar facilities at Aldermaston and at its nearby Burghfield site.

AWE is run by a group of three private companies: Lockheed Martin and Jacobs Engineering Group from the US, and the UK’s Serco. It provides and maintains the nuclear warheads for Trident missiles carried by four Vanguard-class submarines based on the Clyde near Glasgow.

AWE confirmed it had found steel corrosion in May, and “degradation” in other structural components during inspections in July and August…..

The Green MP, Caroline Lucas, is tabling a series of parliamentary questions about the corrosion. She welcomed the ONR’s enforcement action, but argued that “serious questions” remained over the adequacy of the inspections conducted by AWE in the past.

“The MoD’s ancient and rickety nuclear infrastructure is clearly not up to the job of replacing the current Trident nuclear weapons system,” she said. “Rebuilding it to modern safety standards will add even more to the vast costs of the programme.”

Peter Burt, from the Nuclear Information Service which monitors Aldermaston, said: “We should be concerned that … the matter only became known when ONR insisted on reporting details in one of its regular reports.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/24/secret-uk-uranium-enrichment-safety

January 25, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, UK