Nuclear power station had 14-year radioactive leak

[TriWooOx]

Quote:Magnox Electric Ltd was found guilty of breaching laws on the disposal of radioactive waste by failing to inspect a holding tank that had been leaking liquid from the Bradwell nuclear power station in Maldon since 1990.

Managers at the site had claimed the waste had leaked when another firm ran the station, but the Environment Agency, which prosecuted Magnox at Chelmsford Crown Court, said it continued after they took over as staff had failed to inspect the leaking holding tank.

It is the second time in eight years that the firm has been fined for breaching nuclear waste disposal and plant maintenance legislation.

In 2001, it was fined £100,000 for committed offences at Bradwell and the Hinkley Point nuclear power station near Bridgewater, Somerset.

Magnox no longer runs Bradwell, which was shut down in 2002 and is being decommissioned by the Government's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA).

The Environment Agency said it was pleased with the penalties imposed by the judge, who also instructed the firm to pay £150,000 legal costs.

A spokesman said the case "wouldn't do the reputation of the nuclear industry any good" but maintained that it was generally well-run, well-regulated and that prosecutions were rare.

He said tests showed that the radioactive waste had seeped into soil under the plant and would not spread outside the site, limiting the environmental damage.

Magnox said it had inherited the faulty sump from previous owner the Central Electricity Generating Board but it was "deeply embarrassed" by its failure to identify the problem.

Martyn Bowyer, for Magnox, told the court: "The contamination has effectively remained within the footprint of the building. There is no significant risk either to workers on the site or, more importantly, to the general public."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/4682666/N...ctive-leak.html

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