(555.5319) WISE Amsterdam - The Sellafield MOX Plant (SMP) was completed in 1996 but has lain idle ever since while five separate rounds of public consultations were held. The Environment Agency organized the first two public consultations after BNFL applied for permission for the gaseous and liquid discharges arising from the plant's operation. However, although the Environment Agency gave a positive recommendation, it passed the final decision back to the government (see WISE News Communique 502.4958, "Sellafield MOX plant decision passed to government").
The government then organized its own public consultation. However, while the results of the first consultation exercise in 1999 were being considered, the MOX falsification scandal broke. (see WISE News Communique 518.5083, "BNFL fiddling MOX quality control data"). The scandal caused massive damage to customer confidence and forced BNFL to revise their economic case for the plant. This meant that a further public consultation was necessary.
Shortly after announcing this public consultation on the revised economic case, the government announced that it had appointed consultants Arthur D Little to conduct a confidential review of the economic case. This led to accusations that information was being hidden from the public.
Friends of the Earth UK said they would launch a judicial review of the government's decision (see box "SMP judicial review" in WISE News Communique 549.5276, "Sellafield: THORP customers threaten to withdraw business; discharge levels 20 time German standards"). The government's response was to publish a "Public Domain" version of the consultants' report and launch yet another round of public consultation on 27 July 2001, lasting for four weeks. An announcement of the decision was expected a few weeks later.
Decision announced too early in the press The UK's Financial Times twice carried articles quoting government sources as saying that start-up of the Sellafield MOX Plant (SMP) was about to be approved. The first announced 14 September as a possible date for the announcement. The second, on 20 September, even carried the title "BNFL gets go-ahead for Mox recycling facility". However, no go-ahead was forthcoming until 3 October.
The reason for the false information from government sources is unclear, though a subsequent article attributed it to the reluctance of the environment minister Michael Meacher to make the announcement. In the end, the announcement was made on a news release on the web site of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). The news release did not mention the environment minister.
Hidden amongst everything else at Sellafield However, looking at the government's decision letter it is clear that the 11 September terrorist attacks played a role in delaying the decision. Following the attacks, the Office of Civil Nuclear Security (OCNS) was asked to re-examine the security aspects. Regarding the risk of aircraft crashes, the OCNS said "The SMP is one of many plants within a large industrial site and has no special features which would single it out from others on the Sellafield site". No analysis of what might happen if an aircraft did crash into the plant was mentioned. However, the effects would clearly be much more serious if the plant was put into operation and so contained plutonium.
Regarding proliferation issues, the decision letter pointed out that Sellafield already has large amounts of separated plutonium in the form of plutonium oxide powder. The letter claimed that if it is not converted to MOX then it would one day have to be shipped elsewhere for MOX conversion or else back to the countries of origin as plutonium oxide, which is more attractive to potential terrorists than MOX pellets. Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, however, said that the "government puts terror groups a step nearer to nuclear bombs" with its announcement.
BNFL fails to slip in Magnox plutonium In BNFL's revised business case, the possibility of using the relatively small amount of plutonium derived from reprocessing Japanese Magnox spent fuel to make MOX was added. However, this possibility had not been considered by either the Environment Agency or the Health and Safety Executive in their assessments, which only considered plutonium from the Thorp plant. As a result, the Secretaries of State decided that separate consideration would be needed to decide whether BNFL should be authorized to use the SMP for the purpose of manufacturing MOX fuel from Magnox-derived plutonium.
More legal challenges ahead? Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth are seeking urgent legal advice and may mount a further legal challenge. The principle on which the "justification" was issued is found in Article 6 of the Euratom directive 96/29: the economic, social or other benefits must compensate for the health detriments of radiation and other detriments, including costs. However, since the 472 million pounds (US$680 million) of taxpayers' money spent so far was ignored in the calculations, the "net present value" of 158 million pounds (US$228 million) claimed for operating the plant is misleading. Also, Friends of the Earth say that there is insufficient evidence that potential customers will materialize.
Friends of the Earth Scotland also expressed concerns that the decision would make the building of new nuclear power plants in the UK more likely (see WISE News Communique 553.5305, "UK: Energy Review to be pre-empted by Scottish reactor plan?").
The Republic of Ireland is already mounting a legal challenge under the OSPAR convention (see WISE News Communique 550, "In Brief"). However, following the Defra announcement, Joe Jacob, Ireland's minister responsible for nuclear safety, said that this action was "now largely irrelevant". He said that the decision to go ahead with SMP "defies logic", and Ireland is considering taking additional action under European Union or United Nations law.
Finally, it is worth noting that the MOX plant cannot start full operation until BNFL obtains "consent for plutonium commissioning" from the Health and Safety Executive.
Sources:
- Defra news release, 3 October 2001
- Defra/Department of Health decision letter, 3 October 2001
- Financial Times, 14, 20 and 22 September 2001
- BBC, 3 October 2001;
- Greenpeace UK press release, 3 October 2001
- FoE Scotland press release, 3 October 2001
- Irish Times, 4 October 2001
- Reuters, 4 October 2001
Contact: Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment (CORE), 98 Church St, Barrow,
Cumbria LA14 2HJ, UK Tel +44 1229 833851. Fax +44 1229 812239
Email: info@core.furness.co.uk
Web: www.corecumbria.co.uk
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