Falsification of data a breach of trust, says BNFL official

A British Nuclear Fuels Ltd official has acknowledged that the falsification of data at Sellafield amounted to a "breach of trust" and the company had learned some "very difficult lessons" from recent events.

Speaking at a debate on nuclear safety in NUI Galway last night, Mr Rupert Wilcox-Baker, a BNFL spokesman, said rebuilding that trust was now a major task and the process of change at Sellafield was well under way.

This involved "changes in management, a new focus on safety at Sellafield and recommitting ourselves to the highest standards", he told the university's political discussion society.

Referring to "prevailing myths" about nuclear power, Mr Baker-Wilcox said it was untrue that the industry was not properly regulated. "In reality the nuclear industry is the most heavily regulated industry in the world and rightly so," he said.

"If the events of recent weeks have shown anything, it is that the UK regulator, the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate, will not hesitate to act," he said. "In fact our regulator has the power to order the immediate shutdown of any nuclear facility at any time."

Stressing the environmental advantages of nuclear power, in producing virtually no greenhouse or acid rain gases, he said that shutting down nuclear capacity in Europe would exclude nuclear power from the list of alternative energy supplies, and would mean that the EU could not meet its own targets on global warming and carbon dioxide emissions.

The Green Party TD for Dublin North, Mr Trevor Sargent, who is a long-time campaigner against nuclear energy, challenged Mr Wilcox-Baker's assertion on safety and said the price, safety risks and extra waste from reprocessing were unacceptable.

Nuclear research had cost billions of pounds at the expense of renewable sources and energy conservation, he said.

Between 1986 and 1997 research and development funding from governments of the OECD for nuclear technology (fission, fast breeder and fusion research) was more than three times the combined budgets for all renewable energy technologies and energy efficiency, Mr Sargent said. The decommissioning costs could still not be quantified.

"Future generations in thousands of years' time may be deeply resentful of the legacy of radioactive waste the nuclear industry has left them," he said.

Also at NUI Galway yesterday the college's new £7.8 million arts millennium building was opened by the Minister for Education and Science, Dr Woods. The building reflects a significant growth in demand for arts courses. There has been a 20 per cent increase in arts students in the last four years, standing at 3,500 undergraduates and almost 700 postgraduate students. It is expected that there will be a further 20 per cent increase by 2004.

The building incorporates the regional centre for modern languages and provides facilities for arts postgraduate studies.