Sir, - Your editorial, "Sellafield Syndrome" (February 11th) has been brought to our attention. While it is extremely difficult to get a copy of The Irish Times these days, we can be sure our friends and contacts in Ireland will keep, us abreast of developments there. As trade unions representing the workforce at Sellafield, may we be allowed some comments on the issues raised in your editorial?
It is sometimes implied, and indeed has been put to us directly on visits to Ireland, that the workers at Sellafield are compliant in regard to the plant's safety and accident risk status because the nuclear industry is the main employer in an otherwise economically disadvantaged and industrially deficient region of the UK. In other words, we put up with the risks because we need the jobs. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The jobs at any price line was once part of the British anti nuclear package. That stopped after our national Trades Union Congress went out of their way to report: "Contrary to some allegations that they were compromised or complacent organisations, we have found the unions within the industry, at plant as well as national level, to be an independent and vigorous voice.
We are in the frontline of safety; as are our families and our local communities in this area of West Cumbria. We work in the most highly regulated industry in the world. The radiation dose limits to which workers in the industry may be exposed in the course of normal operations is defined internationally and strictly monitored. The safety of our working environment is our first priority and unions and management work together to ensure that the highest safety standards, practices and equipment are in use by our members at all times and in all circumstances. In the case of an accident, such as that which occurred last week in Magnox reprocessing and which resulted in six of our members receiving contamination, the safety regime is designed to minimise the risk of individual exposure to radiation, with immediate remedial action, followed by a thorough investigation of what happened, why it happened and the introduction of any modifications necessary to the safety regime to make sure it cannot happen again.
Sellafield site has one of the most sophisticated safety management systems to protect its workforce. It works from the bottom up, with the involvement of every member of the workforce, not from the top down. As the representative unions, we take pride in our vigilance in demanding the optimum standards of safety performance in respect of every activity which takes place on this site.
The statutory permitted annual radiation dose to workers in the nuclear industry is 50 millisieverts. In 1995, the average whole body exposure to BNFL employees was 1.4 millisieverts - about 2 per cent of the statutory permitted limit. The continuous reduction in radiation exposure to the workers in our industry to the present levels has been achieved through close co operation with management in designing and implementing safety systems.
Anyone who has ever worked in an industrial environment, unless they are a fool, knows that there is no such thing as a "100 per cent accident proof" installation. Safeguarding the environment is as big a priority for us as is safety within the plant, for reasons already stated. One in every four workers on the Sellafield site works in the area of plant safety and environmental protection. In our view, the issues are straightforward identifying potential hazards in regard to all plant and operations; analysis of risk factors which singly, or in convergence, might lead to a release of radioactive materials to the environment from any process or plant on the site, and the systematic engineering out of such potential hazards from process and plant. Neither of the two recent incidents which occurred on the site last week resulted in any release of radioactive materials to the environment or, at any stage, posed any threat to the environment or the public.
All events at Sellafield must be reported, regardless of radiological impact or environmental significance. This is not to seek to downplay the fact that all such incidents are of concern to us. What is also of continuing concern is the fact that such incidents, and indeed "theoretical" constructs, with no scientific or engineering basis, which predict accidents "100 times more serious than Chernobyl", are regular fodder for comments directed against us, as nuclear industry workers, and our industry, by people who clearly have another agenda in view.
As trade unions we have made our agenda clear - and this applies in particular to the proposed construction of a waste repository by NIREX at Gosforth Farm, West Cumbria - no nuclear installation is welcome unless its safety is demonstrated.
We are not in the business of negotiating our own demise, either in terms of tolerating any unsafe installations or risks to our families, communities and the environment, or to placate those whose agenda admits no concern for any fact or any informed debate based on those facts. We take pride in our industry as a workforce. We are doing a difficult, but necessary job, and we are doing it well. - Yours, etc.,
GMB Engineering Convener and on behalf of all unions at Sellafield,
Seascale,
Cumbria.