THE BRITISH government said the Sellafield nuclear plant will after all be subjected to a stress test in the wake of the Fukushima emergency, reversing its previous assertion that the plant would not be examined.
“The focus of the tests is on nuclear power plants, and the stress tests will also be applied to UK facilities in the nuclear fuel cycle, including Sellafield,” a British government spokeswoman in Brussels said yesterday.
In remarks to The Irish Timeson Wednesday and reported yesterday, she had said the Sellafield plant in Cumbria would not be subjected to a stress test.
She explained that by saying that stress tests of European nuclear installations, concentrating on power-generation plants, did not apply to Sellafield as it was now engaged in reprocessing nuclear fuel.
This was at odds with advice to Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan from British energy secretary Chris Huhne.
Although the tests on nuclear power plants are being organised at an EU-level, the spokeswoman said yesterday the examination of the Sellafield plant would be carried at a “domestic level” in Britain. She added that the Sellafield test would be carried out by Dr Mike Weightman, chief inspector of Britain’s Office of Nuclear Regulation.
Mr Hogan welcomed the clarification, saying it was always the Government’s understanding that the tests would be applied to Sellafield.
“When I met Chris Huhne not long after the serious nuclear accident in Japan, we had a useful discussion on nuclear safety issues. I underlined the continuing concerns we have about safety at Sellafield,” he said in a statement.
“It was in the context of this discussion that he confirmed the UK’s intention to apply the stress tests to Sellafield. I welcomed this commitment at the time, and am pleased to have had it reconfirmed now.”
The tests will assess the resilience of nuclear installations throughout Europe to earthquakes, tsunamis, aircraft crashes, power failures and human error. The risk of terrorist attack will be examined separately.
“As well as nuclear reprocessing, Sellafield has the largest inventory of radioactive waste anywhere in Europe, some of which is stored in ageing facilities acknowledged by the UK authorities to require active hazard-reduction programmes,” Mr Hogan said.
“It simply makes sense that such a facility would undergo these safety tests.”
