Regional

U.K.: Nuke Plant Falsified Records

LONDON (AP) -- Workers at a nuclear reprocessing plant deliberately falsified records relating to the quality of fuel pellets, and the plant has been shut down until the problem is corrected, the government's safety agency reported Friday.

The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate said it has been unable to determine why the records were falsified at the Sellafield plant in northwestern England, operated by British Nuclear Fuels PLC. The inspectorate is part of the Health and Safety Executive.

The company faces prosecution over the safety regulations breaches, the Health and Safety Executive said Friday night. The agency said the lapses did not compromise the safety of the uranium and plutonium mixed-oxide fuel used in nuclear reactors.

Energy Minister Helen Liddell said the report documented ``serious management failures'' and noted that she has given company chairman Hugh Collum two months to develop ``comprehensive and radical suggestions for change.''

The report speculated that workers may have falsified records because it was a tedious job.

``There can be no excuse for process workers not following procedures and deliberately falsifying records to avoid doing a tedious task. These people need to be identified and disciplined,'' the report said.

``However, the management on the plant allowed this to happen and since it had been going on for over three years must share responsibility.''

British Nuclear Fuels said it had apologized to its Japanese customer, Kansai Electric Power Co.

Kansai Electric Power Co had planned to use the fuel for an experimental nuclear power program at a reactor in Takahama, in central Japan, starting in January. The program was delayed after BNFL disclosed the quality control problem in December, and Kansai said it would return the fuel.

http://www.newsday.com/ap/rnmpne20.htm

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), February 18, 2000