Court also orders nuclear company to pay £72,000 costs for mistake which sent low-level waste to wrong site

This article is more than 7 years old

This article is more than 7 years old

The nuclear company Sellafield Ltd has been fined £700,000 and ordered to pay more than £72,000 costs for sending bags of radioactive waste to a landfill site.

The bags, which contained waste such as plastic, tissues and clothing, should have been sent to a specialist facility that treats and stores low-level radioactive waste, but management and operational failings led to them being sent to Lillyhall landfill site in Workington, Cumbria.

This breached the conditions of the company's environmental permit and the Carriage of Dangerous Goods and Use of Transportable Pressure Equipment Regulations.

At Carlisle crown court the company, which runs the Sellafield reprocessing site in Cumbria, was fined £700,000 and ordered to pay £72,635.34 costs.

Sellafield found the error had been caused by the wrong configuration of a new monitor which passed the bags as general waste, making them exempt from strict disposal controls.

The Environment Agency and the Office for Nuclear Regulation carried out an investigation and the bags were retrieved from the landfill and returned to Sellafield for correct disposal.

Ian Parker, the nuclear regulation manager for the Environment Agency, said: "Our overriding aim in regulating the nuclear industry is to protect people and the environment from the release of radioactive wastes into the environment.

"While this incident did not lead to any significant harm being caused to the public or to the environment, the failings by Sellafield Ltd that led to the incident were serious and we consider that on this occasion, Sellafield Ltd fell well short of the high standards which we expec.

"For us, the most important thing is that Sellafield Ltd has learnt the lessons from this and put improvements in place to minimise the chances of this type of incident happening again."

Ian Barlow from the Office for Nuclear Regulation said: "We require the nuclear industry to control its hazards and ensure it has effective procedures in place for transporting and disposing of all forms of radioactive material, including waste.

"That hasn't happened here – a failure in leadership and management resulted in the uncontrolled transport and disposal of low-level waste in the public domain.

"Our decision to prosecute shows that this will not be tolerated. Where it is necessary to do so, ONR will not hesitate to take enforcement action to ensure the protection of people and society from the hazards of the nuclear industry."