UK nuclear site could leak until 2050s, MPs warn
LONDON: Britain's most hazardous building threatens to leak radioactive water until the 2050s unless the clean-up of a former nuclear power plant is quickened, UK lawmakers warned on Wednesday.
The waste has been leaking into the ground from a storage silo at the Sellafield facility in Cumbria, in northwest England, since 2018 -- enough to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool every three years.
Sellafield, which began operations in the 1940s, generated nuclear power between 1956 and 2003.
In a report published Wednesday, a group of British MPs criticised the pace of the decommissioning work, citing examples of 'failure, cost overruns and continuing safety concerns'.
It said the risks were highlighted by the Magnox Swarf Storage Silo (MSSS), described by Sellafield owner the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) as 'the most hazardous building in the UK'.
The report by the Public Accounts Committee found that most of the annual targets for retrieving waste from buildings at the site, including the MSSS, had been 'missed'.
It said the storage silo is likely to continue leaking until the oldest section of the building has been emptied in the late 2050s, instead of 2040 as previously expected.
'Every day at Sellafield is a race against time to complete works before buildings reach the end of their life,' said the committee's chair, Geoffrey Clifton-Brown.
'Our report contains too many signs that this is a race that Sellafield risks losing,' he added, saying the site presented 'intolerable risks'.
The radioactive leak is contained and does not pose a risk to the public, the report noted.
A spokeswoman for the NDA said fixing it was the group's 'highest priority'.
Britain's National Audit Office forecast last October that the cost of decommissioning and cleaning up the entire Sellafield site over the next century had soared to £136 billion ($177 billion).
This was up almost 19 percent on the previous official estimate made in 2019.
It noted that 'full site remediation' was not expected until 2125.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New Straits Times
8 hours ago
- New Straits Times
Ringgit set to extend gains as US fundamentals weaken
KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit is poised to extend its gains against the US dollar next week, buoyed by weakening US fundamentals, easing trade tensions, and stronger domestic economic resilience. The local currency has already strengthened against major and Asean currencies, and Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist Dr Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said the trend is likely to persist as economic momentum in the US continues to lose steam. "We expect this trend to hold in the near term, driven by signs of a slowing US economy as business and consumer sentiment continue to weaken," he told Business Times. Afzanizam added that heightened uncertainty over US trade policies is further dampening confidence among businesses, prompting a reassessment of the greenback's global standing. "In some ways, the US dollar's dominance in the global economy is being revisited. This shift could favour emerging market currencies, including the ringgit, in the short to medium term," he said. Echoing this view, SPI Asset Management managing partner Stephen Innes said that foreign appetite for Malaysian assets remains strong, further supporting the local currency. "The ringgit is finally catching a break. With the US dollar on the back foot, tariffs de-escalating, and capital inflows into bonds and FX deposits rising, there is a tangible floor forming under ringgit," he said. Innes pointed to growing foreign appetite for Malaysian debt, highlighting the 3.3 times bid-to-cover ratio in May's 20-year government investment issue (GII) auction as a signal of revived confidence. He noted that foreign holdings of local government bonds have risen to 21.5 per cent, reversing a dip recorded in February. Adding to the ringgit's resilience, foreign currency deposits in local banks have climbed to a record 11.6 per cent of total deposits, offering a buffer against external shocks. Innes said that while Malaysia is not immune to global economic fragility, it is also not a sitting duck, with the domestic investment cycle now taking the lead. "If the trade war cools and global risk sentiment remains stable, Malaysia may continue to navigate the delicate balance between global volatility and domestic resilience. The ringgit, for once, has a shot at playing offence," he added. The ringgit opened higher this morning, extending its gains against the US dollar. At 8am, it stood at 4.2140/4.2335 compared with Thursday's close of 4.2245/4.2295. The local currency also traded mostly higher against major currencies, gaining ground against the Japanese yen and British pound, though it slipped slightly against the euro. Among regional peers, the ringgit appreciated across most Asean currencies, including the Singapore dollar, Thai baht, Indonesian rupiah and Philippine peso. It ended Friday's session at 4.2275 against the greenback.
The Star
10 hours ago
- The Star
India's Modi opens strategic railway in contested 'crown jewel' Kashmir
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 6, 2025, opened a strategic railway line to Kashmir he called 'the crown jewel of India'. - Photo: EPA-EFE SRINAGAR (India): Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his first visit to Kashmir on Friday (June 6) since a conflict with arch-rival Pakistan, opening a strategic railway line to the contested region he called "the crown jewel of India". Modi launched a string of projects worth billions of dollars for the divided Muslim-majority territory, the centre of bitter rivalry between India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947. Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan fought a four-day conflict last month, their worst standoff since 1999, before a ceasefire was agreed on May 10. "Pakistan will never forget... its shameful loss," the Hindu nationalist premier told crowds a month since India launched strikes on its neighbour after an attack on tourists in Kashmir. "Friends, today's event is a grand festival of India's unity and firm resolve," Modi said after striding across the soaring bridge to formally launch it for rail traffic. "This is a symbol and celebration of rising India," he said of the Chenab Bridge which connects two mountains. New Delhi calls the Chenab span the "world's highest railway arch bridge", sitting 359 metres (1,117 feet) above a river. While several road and pipeline bridges are higher, Guinness World Records confirmed that Chenab trumps the previous highest railway bridge, the Najiehe in China. - 'Our troubles' - Modi said the railway was "an extraordinary feat of architecture" that "will improve connectivity" by providing the first rail link from the Indian plains up to mountainous Kashmir. With 36 tunnels and 943 bridges, the new railway runs for 272 kilometres (169 miles) and connects Udhampur, Srinagar and Baramulla. It is expected to halve the travel time between the town of Katra in the Hindu-majority Jammu region and Srinagar, the main city in Kashmir, to around three hours. The new route will facilitate the movement of people and goods, as well as troops, that was previously possible only via treacherous mountain roads and by air. Modi's Hindu nationalist government revoked Kashmir's limited autonomy and took the state under direct rule in 2019. Pakistan's foreign ministry in a statement said India's "claims of development... ring hollow against the backdrop of an unprecedented military presence, suppression of fundamental freedoms, arbitrary arrests, and a concerted effort to alter the region's demography". Around 150 people protested against the project on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir. "We want to tell India that building bridges and laying roads in the name of development will not make the people of Kashmir give up their demand for freedom," said Azir Ahmad Ghazali, who organised the rally attended by Kashmiris who fled unrest on the Indian side in the 1990s. "In clear and unequivocal terms, we want to say to the Indian government that the people of Kashmir have never accepted India's forced rule." More than 70 people were killed in missile, drone and artillery fire during last month's conflict. The fighting was triggered by an April 22 attack on civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir that New Delhi accused Pakistan of backing, a charge denied by Islamabad. Rebel groups in Indian-run Kashmir have waged an insurgency for 35 years demanding independence for the territory or its merger with Pakistan. Modi also announced further government financial support for families whose relatives were killed, or whose homes were damaged, during the brief conflict --- mainly in shelling along the heavily militarised de facto border with Pakistan, known as the Line of Control. "Their troubles are our troubles," Modi said. - AFP
The Sun
a day ago
- The Sun
Three men to go on trial next year over fires linked to UK PM Starmer
LONDON: Three men all linked to Ukraine will go on trial next April accused of involvement in a series of arson attacks on houses and a vehicle in London connected to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, a London court heard on Friday. Over five days last month, police were called to fires at a house in north London owned by Starmer, another at a property nearby where he used to live, and to a blaze involving a car that also used to belong to the British leader. Ukrainian Roman Lavrynovych, 21, is charged with three counts of arson with intent to endanger life. Fellow Ukrainian Petro Pochynok, 34, and Romanian national Stanislav Carpiuc, 26, who was born in Ukraine, are accused of conspiracy to commit arson. Lavrynovych and Carpiuc appeared by video-link at London's Old Bailey court on Friday where Judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb set the trial for April 27 next year. Pochynok was not present for the hearing. In earlier hearings, prosecutors said the motive for the arsons was unclear. The men will enter formal pleas at a hearing in October, but the lawyers for Carpiuc and Pochynok said their clients denied involvement. Counter-terrorism police have led the investigation but none of the men have been charged with offences under terrorism laws or the new National Security Act, which was brought in to target hostile state activity. Police said the first fire involved a Toyota RAV4 car that Starmer used to own and sold to a neighbour. Days later, there was a blaze at a property where Starmer previously resided and the following day there was an attack on a house in north London that he still owns. Starmer, who has lived at his official 10 Downing Street residence in central London since becoming prime minister last July, has called the incidents 'an attack on all of us, on our democracy and the values we stand for'. Earlier this week a fourth man, aged 48, who had been arrested at London Stansted Airport in connection with the arson, was released on police bail.
