Thorp approved for restart

11 January 2007

[British Nuclear Group, NDA, 10 January] Operator British Nuclear Group Sellafield Ltd (BNGSL) has been granted permission to restart the Thorp used nuclear fuel recycling facility at Sellafield by the UK Health and Safety Executive. Thorp had been shut down since April 2005 after the discovery of a tube break in a highly radioactive part of the facility which rated at Level 3 of the International Nuclear Event Scale. Because of the nature of the break and the difficulty of repair, BNG had to introduce an alternative operating procedure for the plant's accountancy process. BNG told WNN that all the physical modifications and necessary improvements to the plant have been made, but the company did not expect to fully restart during this financial year until separate issues concerning the capacity of the facility's evaporators had been addressed. Thorp, and the rest of the Sellafield site, is owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and final consent must come from it before Thorp would restart.

Further information:

British Nuclear Group
Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

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