Management at the Sellafield nuclear facility has improved one year after the revelation that fuel data had been falsified, inspectors said today.
British Nuclear Fuels has raised safety standards since a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation last February found "systematic management failure".
But the HSE today said more work still needs to be done for the plant to meet its requirements, which could take until at least 2002.
Environmentalists Greenpeace insisted the announcement was a "shocking indictment of Sellafield's continuing safety crisis."
The HSE's Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) made three separate reports last year, on control and supervision, fuel data falsification and liquid waste control criticising the entire management structure at Sellafield, saying it had allowed workers to falsify quality assurance records.
Today's report showed that BNFL have fulfilled 40 of the original 65 safety recommendations made by the inspectors.
Major improvements have included appointing a single person to be responsible for safety at the plant and reorganising the BNFL board, it added.
The HSE said it had agreed a timetable for the rest with bosses at Sellafield, the country's largest nuclear facility, which it would continue to monitor.
Mr Laurence Williams, HM chief inspector of nuclear installations, said: "Overall, we are encouraged by the vigour and commitment that BNFL has given to addressing the issues raised by all three reports.
"This has been a highly challenging year for BNFL and our inspectors. A considerable amount of work has been undertaken but more remains to be done."
Greenpeace pointed out that Sellafield met only three of the 28 recommendations in the main control and supervision report, which dealt with safety issues across the plant.
Spokeswoman Dr Helen Wallace said: "When it comes to safety and the environment, Sellafield is a disaster zone."
She added: "Official assurances are bland and meaningless, in the light of the appalling safety record on the site."
Five workers were sacked over the falsification of data at the plant last year, when two loads of plutonium mixed oxide (MOX) were already on their way to Japan.
The Japanese Government demanded that the shipments should be returned to Britain, leading to a personal apology from BNFL chief executive John Taylor.
Poor design of the Cumbria plant, the tedium of the job and the ease with which the computer dating logging system was manipulated were all blamed for the falsification problem, which dated back to 1996.
PA