BNFL wins gas release battle

UK: British Nuclear Fuels Ltd is to be allowed to continue releasing a radioactive gas blamed for 100 cancers a year - even …

UK: British Nuclear Fuels Ltd is to be allowed to continue releasing a radioactive gas blamed for 100 cancers a year - even though it was first ordered to prevent the pollution 27 years ago.

After a decade of trying to enforce the planning condition, the UK's Environment Agency has admitted that by the time BNFL could build a facility to control the Krypton 85 gas, the £1.8 billion Thorp reprocessing plant which produces it is likely to have shut.

The condition was first imposed in 1977. For 10 years BNFL has been locked in a dispute with the Environment Agency over the technical and financial feasibility of capturing the gas on a large scale. - (Guardian Service)