nuclear-news

Sellafield work must resume despite coronavirus lockdown in case of ‘nuclear incident’, says boss LancsLive By Steve Robson, Ian Molyneaux, 12 MAY 2020The boss of Sellafield has said decommissioning work needs to resume despite the coronavirus lockdown in case there is a ‘nuclear incident’.

The site near Seascale has been running at less than a fifth of normal operations for several weeks due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with around 1,500 key staff in work.

Normally, Sellafield would have up to 8,000 people on site every day.

At the beginning of May, a further 120 people came back to work, mainly attending off-site offices in Warrington to access specialist equipment and software.

The company says it is making its way through a “cautious, limited, phased restart of work over the coming weeks”.

Now Chief executive Martin Chown admitted he is faced with a difficult decision, but said it is vital Sellafield restarts some work.

It is understood this refers to the decommissioning of old facilities that have the potential to cause a nuclear hazard if left to mothball……..

It is understood that a broad set of principles for restarting work at Sellafield have been agreed including a maximum of 3,500 people working on any one site at any given time, a maximum of 25per cent of staff working at off-site facilities, and work on construction sites only approved on the basis staff do not interact with the rest of the site. …. https://www.lancs.live/news/local-news/sellafield-work-must-resume-despite-18234403