Stichting Laka

Publicatie Laka-bibliotheek:
The Legacy of Reprocessing in the United Kingdom (2008)

Auteur	M.Forwood, IPFM
	2-05-8-30-16.pdf
Datum	juli 2008
Classificatie	2.05.8.30/16 (GROOT-BRITTANNIË - SELLAFIELD - ALGEMEEN)
Voorkant

Overview

Some 50 years after the Sellafield site, formerly known as Windscale, produced its first
plutonium for nuclear weapons, the full extent of the legacy of this early military work and later
processing operations is only now becoming clear, both in scale and cost. The UK’s politically
driven weapons programme of the 1950’s, via the two Windscale Pile reactors, saw the remote
coastal site in West Cumbria in the north-west of England transformed from a small wartime
munitions facility into a burgeoning nuclear complex.

The construction of the four 50-MW(electric) Calder Hall military reactors in the mid to late
1950’s – primarily to keep pace with the demand for weapons plutonium – heralded the
emergence of the UK’s civil nuclear power industry and the establishment of commercial
reprocessing. Benefiting from the demise of the area’s traditional industries of coal, steel and
shipbuilding, Sellafield grew to become West Cumbria’s foremost employer, and its operations
came to dominate not only the local landscape but also the local economy.

The consequence of the expansion was the creation of mounting stocks of wastes and materials
which, in the early development of the site, were produced with no thought about their eventual
disposal. Similarly, with scant understanding of their long-term behaviour, radioactive
discharges were made to the environment at levels that today are acknowledged as being wholly
unacceptable.

The scale and state of this legacy has only recently been fully quantified. This report identifies
the current state at Sellafield, the underperforming commercial operations that contribute to its
legacy, the clean-up and decommissioning plans for the site, proposals for the management of
the stockpiles of separated plutonium and uranium and nuclear wastes, and lastly the overall
socio-economic and health impact of the Sellafield enterprise on the local communities.

Despite the legacy and the loss-making commercial operations that contribute to it, reprocessing
is allowed to continue with full Government backing even though the original rationale for the
operation has evaporated. The future of Sellafield remains undecided, for whilst the site is
currently programmed to be decommissioned by 2120, Government support for the construction
of a fleet of new nuclear power stations in the UK, and the industry’s lobbying for new
reprocessing and MOX production facilities could see the plans amended and the site’s future
extended.