Publication Laka-library:
The case against reprocessing (1992)
| Author | FOE |
| Date | 1992 |
| Classification | 2.05.8.30/09 (UNITED KINGDOM - SELLAFIELD - GENERAL) |
| Front | 
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From the publication:
BNFL - SECOND TO NONE "BNFL has a high reputation as an experienced reprocessor" British Nuclear Fuels plc, February 1989. 1 On April 1st 1992, British Nuclear Fuels plc (BNFL) celebrates its coming of age with a reputation that is second to none. Over the 21 years since it was formed from the production group of the Atomic Energy Authority, 2, 3, 4 BNFL has been responsible for: • the largest single financial liability of the UK nuclear power industry; 5 • the largest number of nuclear incidents in Britain; 6 • the largest single source of civil radioactive discharge in Europe; 7, 8 • one of the largest single sources of radioactive waste in the world. 9, 10 All of these records were set principally because of the reprocessing of 'spent' nuclear fuel. Carried out at Sellafield, reprocessing represents 55% of BNFL's turnover. 11 It involves dissolving spent fuel from nuclear reactors in concentrated acid to separate it into plutonium, uranium and waste.12 Originally developed to provide plutonium for nuclear weapons,13 the continuation of reprocessing is now being justified as good business and good radioactive waste management practice and receives continuing commitment on this basis from BNFL's sole shareholder, the UK Government. Yet BNFL's economic and environmental arguments for reprocessing have been undermined by increasing evidence of its true costs 14, 15 and by developments in spent nuclear fuel storage. 16 Moreover, reprocessing has lost support internationally, 17, 18, 19 leaving its UK protagonists increasingly desperate to muster arguments in its favour. In spite of this, BNFL now plans to expand massively its reprocessing operations by commissioning THORP - the Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant- in late 1992. 20 Costing nearly £2000 million to construct, 21 it will substantially increase pollution, radioactive waste production and the economic burden represented by the nuclear industry.
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