Nuclear leak went on for five months, and possibly more

IOL: Sellafield leak a damning indictment, says Minister: "The investigation by British Nuclear Group found the pipe may have begun to fail as early as August 2004 and that opportunities were missed between January 2005 and April 19, which would have shown material was leaking.

The secondary containment cell ensured there was no release of radioactivity to the environment and the leak could not have been prevented, but the amount of liquid released could have been reduced, the report found.

“What is clear is firstly the crack should never have occurred, and secondly if it did occur and when it occurred, no matter how small or big it was, it should have been immediately detected,” Mr Roche said.

“To say this went on for five months, and possibly from last August, does nothing to give us any confidence and re-emphasises our determination to press ahead with the legal actions we have in place.”

The minister said he had written to seek an early meeting over the Thorp incident with the UK Environment Secretary and the Trade and Industry Secretary.

Mr Roche has also raised the issue with the European Commissioner for Energy, and said the European Commission’s suggestion it was going step down the level of inspections of nuclear plants in Europe was “a very bad decision”.

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