British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL), the owners of the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant, has said production at the controversial MOX plant has been delayed, and it is unable to say when it will become fully operational. Liam Reid reports.
The plant, which is to manufacture nuclear fuel rods, has yet to produce a single finished product nearly three years after commissioning work began on the plant.
BNFL also confirmed it had to buy fuel rods from a Belgian manufacturer this year to fulfil an order from the Swiss nuclear industry because the MOX plant was not ready.
BNFL also admitted key contracts with nuclear power plants in Japan, previously acknowledged by BNFL as vital for the economic viability of the plant, have not been secured.
The plant was the subject of an international court case taken by Ireland against the British government over the refusal of the UK authorities to provide information on the financial viability of the plant on the basis of commercial sensitivity.
The British government and BNFL have claimed it will make an operational profit of nearly 300 million over its lifetime. It was argued that the plant was essential to the safe reprocessing of fuel at Sellafield in that the reprocessed plutonium from nuclear waste would not be stockpiled on the site, but instead converted into mixed oxide nuclear fuel rods.
However, the Irish Government and environmental organisations have argued that these figures are incorrect in that they exclude the construction costs of nearly 1 billion for the plant in the late 1990s.
Following a failed legal attempt by the Government to prevent production from beginning at the plant, BNFL began commissioning the plant in the autumn of 2001. It was expected the plant would have been fully operational within three years.
Reacting to reports yesterday claiming the MOX plant was a "white elephant", a spokesman for BNFL said the company believed there was still a sound economic case for the plant.
He acknowledged, however, that the plant had experienced delays, with production being completely halted for a period to facilitate modifications to the production process.
He also confirmed that BNFL had yet to win any contracts for the provision of MOX fuel rods to Japan. Four years ago, a senior BNFL executive said that without Japanese orders BNFL could not justify opening the MOX plant.
Yesterday, a spokesman for the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, said: "The future of the MOX plant has always been questionable, and this is further evidence that the course Ireland is taking against Sellafield is the right one."