Sellafield nuclear site is not a danger to the public, the Government has insisted after a whistleblower warned of a string of safety concerns.
Business minister Nick Hurd told MPs the safety regulator is already aware of fears raised in a BBC Panorama programme and that “important progress has been made”.
The BBC said its investigation was prompted by a former senior manager turned whistleblower who was worried about conditions at the site in Cumbria.
Answering an urgent question, Mr Hurd told the Commons: “In relation to Sellafield, I can assure the House there is no safety risk to site staff or the public and it is wrong to suggest
otherwise.”
He added: “The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) is satisfied, and has confirmed again this morning, that Sellafield is safe.
“The regulation of these facilities is the ONR’s top priority, with a team of around 50 inspectors deployed. The ONR requires the site to continuously improve.
“The ONR has confirmed that none of the issues raised in the Panorama programme are new.
“The ONR operates transparently. The issues facing Sellafield have been reported to Parliament in the ONR’s annual report and accounts where the ONR concluded that important progress has been made.”
In Monday’s Panorama show it was alleged that parts of the nuclear facility regularly have too few staff to operate safely and that radioactive plutonium and uranium have been stored in plastic bottles.
The whistleblower is reported to have told the programme his biggest fear was a fire breaking out in one of the nuclear waste silos or one of the processing plants.
The head of nuclear safety at Sellafield, Dr Rex Strong, told the BBC the site is safe and has been improved with significant investment in recent years.
Labour MP Jamie Reed, who described himself as a “third generation Sellafield worker”, urged the regulator to respond to the allegations on a “point-by-point basis”.
The Copeland MP said the site is a “national asset” and the Government should commit to longer-term financing of it.
Raising the urgent question, Mr Reed said: “Viability and accountability for the work undertaken there should be welcomed, I would like to see more of it and I would like to see this done in
a robust and responsible way.”
Mr Hurd said Sellafield is “uniquely challenging” as the site of the UK’s earliest nuclear programmes, when there was no plan for disposing of nuclear waste.
He insisted that the regulator is “doing their job and progress is being made”.
Mr Hurd insisted the Government was not complacent on the issue of nuclear safety but emphasised the UK’s record was “impressive”.
He said: “This is a massively important issue on which no government can show any complacence at all.
“But I do believe we have set up a proper framework and a robust system of transparency and accountability and considerable progress continues to be made but the safety record continues to be
an impressive one which is why countries all around the world come to see how we do it.”
Labour’s Barry Gardiner, shadow energy and climate change secretary, told MPs the Panorama report was “profoundly disturbing”.
He sought reassurances from Mr Hurd about minimum staffing levels at Sellafield.
He asked: “Can the minister confirm that as recently as five days ago a formal notice was sent to the management raising the union’s concern about critical manning levels and the ability to comply with the appropriate procedures and practices when minimum staffing levels are not met?”
Mr Gardiner also asked if the Government had “absolute confidence” in the management of Sellafield and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA).
Mr Hurd said the concerns about staffing levels had been “responded to adequately” in the programme.
On the issue of confidence, he said: “Yes, we do have confidence in the NDA. We also have a great deal of confidence in the independent regulator who has made it quite clear that as far as they are concerned the programme doesn’t raise any new issues and that Sellafield is safe.”
Mr Hurd also insisted that the safety record at the site over the last three years was the “best it’s ever been”.
SNP MP Margaret Ferrier (Rutherglen and Hamilton West) said the Government’s overall policy on nuclear issues, including Trident and nuclear energy, was “nothing short of appalling”.
She called for ministers to move away from their “nuclear obsession” and ban the creation of new nuclear power stations to reduce the amount of waste going to Sellafield.
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