nuclear-news

Sellafield failing to address ‘intolerable risks’, damning parliamentary report warns

 Sam Baker, Staff reporter, The Chemical Engineer, 6 June 25

MANAGEMENT of the Sellafield nuclear facility in Cumbria, UK is not responding quickly enough to “intolerable risks” at the site posed by ageing assets, a damning new report has warned.

In the report published yesterday, the UK Public Accounts Committee (PAC), a group of MPs tasked with evaluating the cost-effectiveness of public spending projects, said that deteriorating assets are making the site “increasingly unsafe”.

Sellafield, the UK’s oldest nuclear site, has been in the long process of decommissioning since it stopped generating power in 2003, overseen by wholly state-owned Sellafield Ltd, and now works primarily in processing spent nuclear fuel. 

 The PAC’s report found that sluggish progress in decommissioning Sellafield has meant Sellafield Ltd has missed most of its annual targets in retrieving waste. This includes radioactive waste currently stored in Sellafield’s Magnox Swarf Storage Silo (MSSS), the UK’s most hazardous building.

After setting a target to have emptied the MSSS of waste by 2046, Sellafield Ltd now does not expect to achieve this until between 2054 and 2059. Problems at the MSSS are also behind the plant’s “single biggest environmental issue” – radioactive water has been leaking into the ground since 2018. Sellafield Ltd has confirmed that radioactive particles are “contained” in the soil and that there is no risk to the public…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Money not well spent

The current estimate for the total cost to the public of decommissioning Sellafield is £136bn (US$184bn), with completion expected no earlier than 2125, although problems identified by the PAC are likely to see the cost rise and the completion delayed.  

One example of overspend highlighted in the report was the water sample lab refurbishment, which the PAC said was “very poorly managed” leading to a “waste” of £127m.

The report also resurfaced past issues of bullying and harassment at Sellafield, which the NDA settled in 2023-24 for £377,200. The PAC pointed out that Sellafield Ltd has signed 16 non-disclosure agreements in the last three years. These are separate from the Official Secrets Act which most staff routinely sign when joining Sellafield.

Clifton-Brown acknowledged the “early indications of some improvement” at Sellafield but said that the “government must do far more to hold all involved immediately accountable to ensure these do not represent a false dawn, and to better safeguard both the public purse and the public itself”………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Not going underground

Sellafield’s troubles this week do not end with the PAC report. On Tuesday, Lincolnshire County Council withdrew its candidacy to host a geological disposal facility (GDF) that could store radioactive plutonium for thousands of years once retrieved from stockpiles at Sellafield.

As recently as July 2024, a site in Theddlethorpe in Lincolnshire was a leading candidate to build the GDF. However, the newly elected council, led since May 2025 by Reform UK, this week revoked its membership of the nuclear waste community partnership, which council leader Sean Matthews described as a “nuclear nightmare”.

Announcing the results of the vote to withdraw membership, Matthews, a former London police officer, said: “Now, Lincolnshire people can get back to living their lives, assured that this nuclear nonsense is over.” https://www.thechemicalengineer.com/news/sellafield-failing-to-address-intolerable-risks-damning-parliamentary-report-warns/

June 7, 2025 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, UK