Clean-up is too slow

The retrieval of waste from ageing buildings at the UK’s most hazardous nuclear site is not happening quickly enough, according to a report on decommissioning Cumbria’s Sellafield plant by the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee.

The report highlights continuing safety concerns and finds that Sellafield Ltd has missed most of its annual targets for retrieving waste from several buildings on the site, including the Magnox Swarf Storage Silo.

This has been leaking radioactive water into the ground since 2018.

Prospect specialists’ union senior deputy general secretary Sue Ferns called for a rethink on the “short-termist funding model” for nuclear commissioning.