Fundamental safety failures at Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant in Cumbria led to a leakage of 8,000 litres of radioactive water in February, according to Minister for the Environment, Dick Roche.
The radioactively contaminated water was lost from one of the storage ponds but was safely collected in the effluent system designed for such incidents.
The UK Environment Agency announced enforcement action against British Nuclear Group Sellafield Ltd yesterday in relation to the leakage. Mr Roche said that this pointed to further evidence of fundamental safety failures at the Cumbria plant. Between August 2004 and March 2005, 84,000 litres of plutonium and uranium in a nitrous oxide mix leaked at Sellafield but was also contained in the holding area.
Mr Roche said he would raise the safety record of the plant with British trade and industry minister Alistair Darling in their forthcoming meeting.
The leak in February occurred during a planned test of instrumentation, which required the water level in the storage pond to be raised temporarily.
However, the water level remained at a higher level than planned, which caused water to leak from a gap in an expansion joint of the pond wall.
Mr Roche said that while this incident involved no escape of radioactivity to the environment and the amount of leaked contaminated water was small, it was another example of the ongoing safety failures at the plant. "This incident which resulted in the enforcement action by the UK Environment Agency might be considered minor when considered in isolation; however, it is the ongoing accumulation of a large number of incidents over a long period of time that point to fundamental failures in safety management and culture at the plant," he said.
Mr Roche added that evidence of a fundamental failure of safety management at the plant continues to mount.