Roche says safety failures caused Sellafield leak

Minister for the Environment Dick Roche has said that safety failures at Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant in Cumbria caused a leakage of 8,000 litres of radioactive water in February.

The water was lost from one of the storage ponds but was collected in the waste system made for these incidents.
The UK Environment Agency announced enforcement action against British Nuclear Group Sellafield Ltd in connection with the leakage. Mr Roche stated that this suggested safety failures at the Cumbria plant.
Mr Roche said that he would bring up the plant’s safety record with British trade and industry minister Alistair Darling in their forthcoming meeting.

The leak in February happened during a planned test of instrumentation. This meant that the water level in the storage pond had to be raised. However the water level stayed a higher level than planned which caused water to leak from a gap in an expansion joint of the pond wall.
“This incident which resulted in the enforcement action by the UK Environment Agency might be considered minor when considered in isolation,” Mr Roche said.
“However, it is the ongoing accumulation of a large number of incidents over a long period of time that point to fundamental failures in safety management and culture at the plant.”