Friday 28 June 2019

Sellafield security questioned by official UK nuclear regulator

A week ago the UK national nuclear regulator, the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), released its annual report and accounts to zero media attention.(https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/809262/onr-ara-1819.pdf)

But embedded in its 164 pages was the following intriguing revelation:

"Early in the reporting year, a number of security events required us to apply regulatory attention to several of Sellafield Ltd's security investigations."

It then added: " Appropriate lessons have been identified and we will continue our regulatory focus on security culture and on influencing improvements in the security competence of the internal assurance function."

Sellafield is a big nuclear site that, inter alia, holds 140,000 kilogrammes of plutonium. A devastating warhead can be made with  just 5kgs

We cannot afford any serious security even ts at Sellafield!

Below is a salutary tale of trying t find the uranium cubes lost from the Nazi nuclear bomb programme, to show how sensitive nuclear material can go missing for decades...

Physics Today, 1 May 2019 in People & History
 https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/PT.6.4.20190501a/full/  

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