Britain faces EU 'nuclear fine'

NUCLEAR operator BNFL is set to miss a key European Union deadline today to clean up part of its Sellafield reprocessing plant.

The EU told Britain earlier this year it had to do more to tackle a series of reinforced concrete ponds that store radioactive waste at the Cumbria plant and extended the deadline by when the UK has to set out how it will achieve the task.

That deadline expires today and missing it could cost BNFL a hefty fine and see the UK hauled before the European Court.

Under European law all EU member states must declare exactly how much nuclear material it possesses. The British Government‘s failure to reveal exactly what is in the concrete ponds at Sellafield means that the UK is technically in breach of EU law.

EU spokesman Reijo Kemppinen said in April that it did not know exactly how much waste is stored in the concrete ponds, which were built in the late 1950s, because inspectors hadn‘t been given enough access to the site.

Kemppinen said: 'British Nuclear Fuels has failed to comply with the rules concerning accounting for nuclear material and the access of Commission inspectors to nuclear material to check the nature and quality and quantity of the material.

'It is impossible to determine accurately the quantities of material stored and on the spot inspections cannot take place because of the high level of radiation and poor visibility in the part of the facility concerned.'

Some of the nuclear waste within the pond has corroded or disintegrated, making the fuel removal and cleaning request from the EU especially difficult to fulfill, according to reports.

The clean-up will be a lengthy task because high levels of radiation near the concrete ponds limit the amount of time workers can spend working there.