Sellafield failing to address ‘intolerable risks’, damning parliamentary report warns

Sellafield

MANAGEMENT of the Sellafield nuclear facility in Cumbria, UK is not responding quickly enough to “intolerable risks” at the site posed by ageing assets, a damning new report has warned.

In the report published yesterday, the UK Public Accounts Committee (PAC), a group of MPs tasked with evaluating the cost-effectiveness of public spending projects, said that deteriorating assets are making the site “increasingly unsafe”.

Sellafield, the UK’s oldest nuclear site, has been in the long process of decommissioning since it stopped generating power in 2003, overseen by wholly state-owned Sellafield Ltd, and now works primarily in processing spent nuclear fuel. The PAC’s report found that sluggish progress in decommissioning Sellafield has meant Sellafield Ltd has missed most of its annual targets in retrieving waste. This includes radioactive waste currently stored in Sellafield’s Magnox Swarf Storage Silo (MSSS), the UK’s most hazardous building.

After setting a target to have emptied the MSSS of waste by 2046, Sellafield Ltd now does not expect to achieve this until between 2054 and 2059. Problems at the MSSS are also behind the plant’s “single biggest environmental issue” – radioactive water has been leaking into the ground since 2018. Sellafield Ltd has confirmed that radioactive particles are “contained” in the soil and that there is no risk to the public.

Sellafield Ltd said that they have had problems getting newly installed equipment to work in older buildings, including issues with powering cranes.

PAC chair Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said: “Every day at Sellafield is a race against time to complete works before buildings reach the end of their life. Our report contains too many signs that this is a race that Sellafield is losing.

“Our latest report is interleaved with a number of examples of failure, cost overruns, and continuing safety concerns. Given the tens of billions at stake, and the dangers onsite to both the environment and human life, this is simply not good enough.”

The report also found that refurbishment of an onsite lab that analyses water samples had to be paused owing to a “lack of understanding of what physical state its labs were in, and from not doing the right remedial work to address their deterioration”.

The report also highlighted hazards at the Pile Fuel Cladding Silo, which will not be emptied until at least 2036 – six years later than targets it set in 2018. Sellafield Ltd is also concerned that they will miss a 2045 deadline to empty the Magnox Storage Pond of waste, already 12 years later than the target set in 2018.

Speaking on behalf of Sellafield Ltd, Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) CEO David Peattie said: “We welcome the scrutiny of the committee and their report. We will now look in more detail at the recommendations and consider how best to address them.

“We take the findings seriously and the safety of the site and the wellbeing of our people will always be our highest priorities.

“As the committee has noted, Sellafield is the most complex and challenging nuclear site in the UK. We are pleased they recognise improvements in delivering major projects and that we are safely reviewing waste from all four highest hazard facilities.

“With the support of our employees, their representatives, community, and stakeholders we remain committed to driving forward improved performance and continuing to deliver our nationally important mission safely, securely and sustainably.”

Money not well spent

The current estimate for the total cost to the public of decommissioning Sellafield is £136bn (US$184bn), with completion expected no earlier than 2125, although problems identified by the PAC are likely to see the cost rise and the completion delayed.  

One example of overspend highlighted in the report was the water sample lab refurbishment, which the PAC said was “very poorly managed” leading to a “waste” of £127m.

The report also resurfaced past issues of bullying and harassment at Sellafield, which the NDA settled in 2023-24 for £377,200. The PAC pointed out that Sellafield Ltd has signed 16 non-disclosure agreements in the last three years. These are separate from the Official Secrets Act which most staff routinely sign when joining Sellafield.

Clifton-Brown acknowledged the “early indications of some improvement” at Sellafield but said that the “government must do far more to hold all involved immediately accountable to ensure these do not represent a false dawn, and to better safeguard both the public purse and the public itself”.

A spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, which oversees Sellafield Ltd through its ownership of the NDA, said: “We expect the highest standards of safety and security as former nuclear sites are dismantled, and the regulator is clear that public safety is not compromised at Sellafield.

“We continue to support the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority in its oversight of Sellafield while driving value for money. This is underpinned by monthly performance reviews and increased responsibility for overseeing major project performance, enabling more direct scrutiny and intervention.

“We have zero-tolerance of bulling, harassment and offensive behaviour in the workplace – we expect Sellafield and the NDA to operate on this basis, investigate allegations and take robust action when needed.”

Not going underground

Sellafield’s troubles this week do not end with the PAC report. On Tuesday, Lincolnshire County Council withdrew its candidacy to host a geological disposal facility (GDF) that could store radioactive plutonium for thousands of years once retrieved from stockpiles at Sellafield.

As recently as July 2024, a site in Theddlethorpe in Lincolnshire was a leading candidate to build the GDF. However, the newly elected council, led since May 2025 by Reform UK, this week revoked its membership of the nuclear waste community partnership, which council leader Sean Matthews described as a “nuclear nightmare”.

Announcing the results of the vote to withdraw membership, Matthews, a former London police officer, said: “Now, Lincolnshire people can get back to living their lives, assured that this nuclear nonsense is over.”