Fwd: PLUTONIUM MISSING AT SELLAFIELD

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" luckypig "

Mon, 29 Dec 2003 11:51:38 -0500

PLUTONIUM MISSING AT SELLAFIELD

 

WELL, IF IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO STEAL, THEN WHERE IS IT?????????

 

 

Enough plutonium for five bombs 'missing' at Sellafield

 

By Liam McDougall

Sunday Herald - 28 December 2003

 

http://www.sundayherald.com/print38953

 

ENOUGH plutonium to make five nuclear bombs has gone missing from Sellafield

in Cumbria in the past 12 months, it has been revealed. The official report

which lists " materials unaccounted for " at the UK's nuclear sites found that

19.1kg of the highly toxic substance was apparently missing from the

reprocessing plant.

 

At the Dounreay plant in Caithness, meanwhile, the annual audit recorded a

surplus 1.16kg of highly enriched uranium, which can also be used to make

nuclear weapons.

 

Spokesmen for each plant were quick to play down the figures, saying they

were estimates and " gave rise to no concern over either the safety or

security " of the sites. But independent nuclear experts have expressed

concern.

 

A look back at Sellafield's records reveals that auditors have found large

quantities of plutonium regularly unaccounted for. Although the United

Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority does not have a complete record of its

annual nuclear materials balance on its website, Sellafield was found to

have 5.6kg of plutonium unaccounted for in 2001 and as much as 24.9kg in

1999.

 

After the latest figures were revealed, Dr Frank Barnaby, a nuclear

consultant who used to work at the Aldermaston atomic weapons factory in

Berkshire, said: " In reprocessing, a small amount of material is bound to be

lost in the process, but 19kg is a very sig nificant amount of plutonium.

The company might say this is not a cause for concern, but if they cannot be

sure where the plutonium is, how can they say it has not been stolen?

 

" If a terrorist group were to claim it had stolen 5kg of plutonium from

Sellafield, the authorities could not say with any certainty that they had

not taken it. It's a very unsatisfactory situation indeed. This amount of

material could be made into five or six nuclear weapons. "

 

John Large, a nuclear engineer who advised the Soviet Union following the

Kursk submarine disaster, described Sellafield's figure as " a very serious

shortfall " .

 

" If it's an accounting lapse, then maybe it never existed in the first

place, but it's worrying. The inventory controls for plutonium are extremely

tight.

 

" British Nuclear Fuels [the company that runs Sellafield] needs to be more

accountable. It cannot simply record that it has a 19kg deficit and simply

say there is no cause for concern. "

 

Dr Dan Barlow, head of research at Friends of the Earth Scotland, also said

he believed the situation was unsatisfactory.

 

" The fact that material such as this is unaccounted for, whether lost or in

surplus, is of deep concern. No other industry would be allowed to get away

with such poor industrial practices. For bomb-grade material to go missing

in such large quantities has to be a cause for concern. The question of

where this material has gone is one that demands an answer. "

 

The latest criticisms of the nuclear industry come after scientists found

the teeth of children in Northern Ireland were con taminated with plutonium

from the Sellafield nuclear plant. The research, published earlier this

month, found traces of the radio active material in every single milk tooth

of 3000 children studied.

 

Scientists believe leaks and discharges into the sea have put the material

into the food chain over recent decades. The day after the research was

published, British Nuclear Fuels admitted that " lightly radioactively

contaminated " pipes from Sellafield had been washing up on beaches in

Northern Ireland.

 

Spokesman Alan Hughes said the figures for " unaccounted for " plutonium were

normal.

 

" It is impossible to measure absolutely exactly that amount of material

going into the plant and the amount coming out because of the changes

material undergoes in the process.

 

" There is also a degree of uncertainty in the measuring process and some

material may remain in the internal pipe system. We would expect to see a

slightly larger figure at Sellafield than for other reprocessing plants

because of the huge amount of material that is put through it each year. "

 

When asked how he could be sure no substances had been taken away from the

plant, Hughes said the strict security measures employed at Sellafield would

make it " virtually impossible " for radioactive material to be stolen.

 

 

 

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