The troubled plutonium and uranium reprocessing plant at Sellafield may have to shut down.

The Sellafield mixed oxide plant (SMP) cost the taxpayer £472 million and was intended to turn plutonium and uranium recovered from used nuclear fuel into usable fuel for overseas nuclear reactors.

It was completed in 1996, but the commercial go-ahead for the plant was withheld following financial concerns and a scandal in 1999 involving falsified safety data. The justification for the operation of the plant was not achieved until October 2001 and it is now under the control of the state financed Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

In 2001, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth took the government to the High Court claiming that the decision to allow British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) to begin operation of the plant at Sellafield was unlawful because:

• it would incur an overall financial loss;
• and, the predicted £200m income relied on customers that did not exist. BNFL only had contracts for less than 10 per cent of the business it hoped to attract.

The Irish and Norwegian governments also made separate legal challenges to the plant.

Since 2001, the plant has suffered a number of repeated breakdowns. Last spring the then energy minister, Malcolm Wicks, admitted in response to a parliamentary question that the SMP had managed to reprocess only 2.6 tonnes of fuel per year between 2002 and 2007. The plant was supposed to reprocess 120 tonnes a year to make it financially viable.

Between 1998 and 2002, the plant produced annual figures respectively of 2.3 tonnes, 0.3 tonnes, 0 tonnes and 0 tonnes following a string of technical difficulties. Wicks said it was using "largely unproven technology" and admitted that even when it operated at top capacity it could produce only 72 tonnes a year by 2001.

The current so-called third generation nuclear reactors, the European Pressurised Water Reactors, currently under construction in Olkiluoto in Finland and Flamanville in France have both been plagued with construction delays. The reactor at Olkiluoto is three years behind schedule and over 2 billion euros over budget.

Nathan Argent, head of Greenpeace's energy solutions unit, said: "It's no wonder the nuclear industry has become notorious for making suspect financial claims and duping pliant ministers.

"For years we urged the government to treat the industry's predictions with the scepticism they deserved, but our pleas fell on deaf ears. Now we're seeing the whole sorry saga repeated with nuclear new-build.

"Once again the same tired lines about sparkling new equipment are wrapped in make-believe financial forecasts, and ministers are swallowing it all hook, line and sinker."

ENDS

Greenpeace press office: 020 7865 8255

Nuclear waste from the reactors likely to be built in the UK will be up to seven times more hazardous than that produced by existing reactors.

The admission was made in an 'environmental impact assessment' report by nuclear company Posiva. Posiva are responsible for managing the waste which will be produced by the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) currently being constructed in Olkiluoto, Finland.

And an independent nuclear consultant has warned that this will increase the costs of nuclear energy, as waste storage and safety expenses will rise above expected levels.

Normandy in France is the site of the only other EPR being built in the world. It is the design that French government-owned EdF will attempt to build in Britain. Last week, French president Nicolas Sarkozy announced that a second EPR would be constructed in France.

Independent nuclear consultant John Large said: "This means that not only will spent nuclear fuel produced by the EPR be more dangerous than is acknowledged by the French nuclear industry, but also storage and disposal will be more expensive than the industry and governments proclaim, and will increase the overall cost of nuclear energy.

"The French nuclear companies Areva and EDF, which aggressively market the EPR as safe and cheap, have completely ignored the implications of the increased hazards."

The EPR is designed to extract more energy from nuclear fuel than current nuclear reactors. But this causes the amount of radioactive substances in spent fuel to increase disproportionately. If the fuel is disposed of by burying it in an underground nuclear waste dump, in the long-term, the largest health risk comes from a hazardous substance known as iodine-129. The amount of iodine-129 produced by the EPR is seven times as large as that of a current operating reactor.

Nathan Argent, head of Greenpeace's energy solutions unit, said: "Nuclear power is fast becoming the most expensive form of electricity, and revelations like this should be cause for alarm amongst both investors and taxpayers.

"Instead of being hoodwinked by the vacuous promises of the nuclear lobby, government and industry should instead be making a clever investment in energy efficiency. This would create tens of thousands of British jobs, and also tackle fuel poverty and climate change in the fastest possible way."

ENDS

The full Posiva report is available online - the relevant information is on page 137.

Greenpeace press office: 020 7865 8255.

The French nuclear safety agency, ASN, has ordered construction to be suspended on the new nuclear reactor being built in France - the same model that would most likely be built in the UK. (1)

Flamanville's construction in northern France has run into the same kinds of problems plaguing the ongoing construction of the only other European Pressurised Reactor (EPR), Olkiluoto 3, in Finland.

The move by ASN follows the agency's discovery of chronic problems affecting the quality of construction work since building work commenced on Flamanville 3 in December 2007.

ASN's call to halt construction follows a series of letters from the agency to Flamanville's construction manager. In the letters, ASN inspectors highlighted a range of problems including non-conformities in the pinning of the steel framework of the concrete base slab, incorrectly positioned reinforcements, and inadequacy of technical inspections by both the construction companies and Electricité de France (EDF).

Inspectors also uncovered inconsistencies between the blueprint for reinforcement work and the plan for its practical implementation. (2) The incorrect composition of concrete had been used, that may lead to cracks and rapid deterioration. Samples of concrete were also not collected properly, according to ASN. (3)

Cracks have already been observed at part of the base slab beneath the reactor building. The supplier of the steel containment liner reportedly lacks the necessary qualifications. Fabrication of the liner was continuing despite quality failures demonstrating the lack of competence of the supplier. As a result, one-quarter of the welds of the steel liner of the reactor containment building were deficient. (4)

Ben Ayliffe, head of Greenpeace's nuclear campaign, said: "The only two EPRs being built today are construction fiascos. The one in Finland is years behind schedule and billions over budget and only six months into the project in France building work has come screeching to a halt.

"This reactor design is fast becoming a by-word for incompetence, massive delays, spiralling costs and dodgy engineering. We only have a limited time and budget to stave off the most catastrophic effects of climate change and we should stop pouring money down the nuclear black hole."

Olkiluoto has been under construction for three years but has been blighted ever since the concrete was poured. Poor quality concrete, bad welds on the containment liner and low-quality reactor components are among its problems. The schedule for completion has been put back by more than two years and costs have nearly doubled to over 5 billion euros.

ENDS

Greenpeace press office: 020 7865 8255

Notes:

(1) Mr Smith from the local division of ASN interviewed by French channel 3 this lunchtime, also quoted in the French local paper Ouest-France: "Le coulage du béton de l'EPR suspendu - Suite à une injonction de l'ASN (Autorité de sûreté nucléaire) qui a constaté une nouvelle anomalie dans le ferraillage de l'îlot qui supportera le future réacteur nucléaire, EDF vient de suspendre le coulage du béton. Le chantier est donc interrompu pour correction et vérification."

(2) ASN letter, 12 March 2008.

(3) ASN letter, 25 January 2008.

(4) ASN letter, 19 February 2008.