30kg of Plutonium "lost" at Sellafield

[Libero]

But don't worry kids, it's only a "paper loss". Presumably the type that gives you paper cancer.

The Times reports that 19kg was lost in 2003, and 50kg over the last ten years.

BNFL have dismissed it as "an accounting issue". Well, I guess Enron were an energy company too so maybe they're allowed do this kind of thing. And sure it's not like we expect nuclear scientists to be accurate with their calculations

The Times has a good report here, setting out how this discrepancy may be entirely innocent.

[hivemind]

I believe it could be an accounting error. However, if they're accounting is so flaky how do we know anything about their plutonium? It seems clear that if there have been multiple accounting errors on the negative side there should have been some on the positive side.

People would freak if they didn't keep any record at all. If they can just brush off inconsistencies as 'just an accounting error' then how is that any different than not keeping records at all.

[borderlinegenius]

"Don't worry Minister, it's safely in the Irish Sea."

[Odaise Gaelach]

1940s: Windscale opened.
1957: Fire at Pile No. 1 destroys the reactor and causes Pile No. 2 to be shut down. A large portion of Windscale is sold off to BNFL, and the name is changed to Sellafield.
1981: Fire at the advanced gas-cooled reactor. Reactor is subsequently shut down.
2005: 19kg of nuclear fuel was unaccounted for in 2003, and a total of 50kg over the last ten years.
2005: A pipe, leaking radioactive materials, has been found. It has already been leaking for months before it was discovered.

And that's all the stuff we know about. How many accidents have happened that didn't make the news?

PS: I'm for nuclear power, but Sellafield scares me more than what lies inside the sarcophagus at Chernobyl.

[Catalpa]

1940s: Windscale opened.
1957: Fire at Pile No. 1 destroys the reactor and causes Pile No. 2 to be shut down. A large portion of Windscale is sold off to BNFL, and the name is changed to Sellafield.
1981: Fire at the advanced gas-cooled reactor. Reactor is subsequently shut down.
2005: 19kg of nuclear fuel was unaccounted for in 2003, and a total of 50kg over the last ten years.
2005: A pipe, leaking radioactive materials, has been found. It has already been leaking for months before it was discovered.

And that's all the stuff we know about. How many accidents have happened that didn't make the news?

PS: I'm for nuclear power, but Sellafield scares me more than what lies inside the sarcophagus at Chernobyl.

Re use of 'Windscale', pretty certain this was the name of the location well into the 1970s IIRC.

[Odaise Gaelach]

Was it? My bad then, I thought that they renamed the plant shortly after the accident in 1957.