A year never goes by without new grounds for concern over the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing complex. As Britain's largest nuclear site, it represents, the Government has rightly said, the greatest environmental threat facing this State. Yesterday, that threat grew even larger with the announcement by the British government that it will be sold to the private sector.
If the decision to privatise Sellafield had been taken in order that concerns about its safety would gain a higher priority then the move could be welcomed cautiously. However, BNFL, the State company which owns Sellafield was anxious to stress that the change of ownership offers "a fantastic opportunity to deliver significant value for the customer". The introduction of strong competition in the industry "can only be good news for the UK taxpayer". Very little was said about safety.
The British prime minister, Tony Blair, is determined to build additional nuclear power stations despite the problems of cost and waste and the threat of terrorism. Speaking this week, he stated that nuclear power must play its part in energy provision. Energy, according to the Confederation of British Industry, is now the issue of greatest concern to British business. It is not just that it has doubled in price in the last two years but also, with North Sea oil volumes in decline and coal mining almost over, there is less of it about. In addition, over the next decade many of Britain's coal-fired power stations and most of the nuclear-powered are scheduled to close.
The British government had hoped to privatise BNFL but that plan was dropped when it transpired that staff had falsified safety records. Also, the cost of decommissioning disused power stations, insofar as it can be calculated, is enormous and a huge deterrent to investors. The plan now is to selloff the nuclear clean-up business, of which Sellafield is a major part, so that BNFL can concentrate on constructing a new generation of power stations.
The clean-up business is big business. Sellafield's Thorp plant which reprocesses spent nuclear fuel has customers as far afield as Japan and revenue runs to some €2 billion a year. Each year it continues in operation increases the nuclear hazards. Sellafield is the world's junkyard for nuclear waste but nevertheless there will be no shortage of would-be buyers.
The cost of cleaning up Sellafield alone is now estimated to be in excess of €50 billion. This is far higher than previous estimates because the plant has more radioactive sludge in underground tanks than was originally thought. If the clean-up started tomorrow, it would be 150 years before the threat was finally eliminated. That the operation of Thorp and the clean-up of Sellafield was entrusted to a State-owned body, albeit one with a dodgy record, offered a small measure of comfort. For it to be handed over to profit-maximising private interests will add to the unease. The Government must put every pressure it can on the UK authorities to shut down Thorp and get the waste removed.