Greenpeace: Thorp will close by 2010
The Thorp reprocessing plant at Sellafield is to close by 2010, a leading environmental campaign group predicted today.
Greenpeace said it had been informed that an announcement by the British government closing the plant in 2010 would be made during the passage of legislation in the autumn enacting the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.
The group urged the government to close the plant even earlier – possibly around 2006.
“Bringing forward the closure of Thorp may sound good,” said Greenpeace nuclear campaigner Jean McSorley.
“But this plan hides the fact that the plant could close even earlier, probably around 2006, if British Energy was allowed to store their spent nuclear fuel rather than being made to reprocess it.
“That would mean less radioactive waste being created and less radioactive discharges into the environment.”
The claims by Greenpeace come after a report in The Guardian newspaper in England which said the Thorp reprocessing operation, once hailed as the saviour of the nuclear industry, was to close by 2010.
Brian Watson, director of the Sellafield site, told the newspaper: “There is £30bn (€43.3bn) worth of clean-up work here.
“We are switching from reprocessing to clean-up work.
“We hope that will be seen in a more positive light.”
But British Nuclear Fuels today denied that any closure announcement had been made.
A statement said: “Thorp has an order book which currently extends to 2010. Although the focus of the Sellafield site is shifting from commercial reprocessing to clean up and managing the historic legacy, BNFL has made it clear that all existing reprocessing contracts will be honoured.
“Any new business for Thorp will depend upon the wishes of our customers, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority which will assume ownership of the site in 2005 and ultimately the sanction of government.”
A spokesman for the British Department of Trade and Industry said claims about the date of closure were “pure speculation” and there were no new proposals for the plant.
There would have to be a public consultation if any new contract proposals were put forward for Thorp after 2010, he said.
The Thorp reprocessing plant was opened in 1994 after a court battle over whether it was needed or justified.
The Sellafield site, in Cumbria, also has a Magnox reprocessing plant, the Sellafield Mox plant and a range of “historic” facilities dating back to the 1950s and 1960s as well as modern waste treatment facilities.
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is set to take over decommissioning of civilian nuclear facilities.
