In a surprise statement, the UK Energy Minister announced the other day that the Sellafield Nuclear reprocessing plant was not working to capacity.

In fact, the £470 million plant processed on average only 2.6 tonnes per year instead of the estimated 120 tonnes over the six years since commissioning.

Actually, I said it was a surprise statement, but I lied. From 2001 comes the following 'prophecy' from Greenpeace:

Greenpeace argues there is insufficient evidence the plant will attract enough customers, and the plant will never pay for itself.

Consultants say the plant's operation will be worth £150m to the UK over its lifetime, but Greenpeace says this profit is distorted because the huge cost of building the plant has already been written off.

Also, it says, BNFL claims that economic powers such as Japan -- a BNFL customer since the 1960s -- will play a major role in making the plant a success do not stand up to examination. Greenpeace says Japan has an effective moratorium on orders from Sellafield following last year's falsification incident.

BNFL counters by saying it has customers who already use its reprocessing facilities that want Mox fuel. It says it has a bulging order book.

It also says the plant will directly support more than 300 jobs and indirectly benefit hundreds more in a part of west Cumbria highly dependant on BNFL for jobs. Local unions have already given their backing to the plant." -- BBC

That's right, nuclear campaigners who took the government to the high court disputing the official figures, said as far back as 2001 that the Sellafield NOX plant was a white elephant. The Japanese never became a customer due to previous lies about reprocessing records.

But the woolly jumper brigade were not the only ones speaking out about Sellafield. The Government of the Irish Republic took the British government through as many different international legal courts as they could think of in order to protest about radiation leaks from Sellafield and the effects on the Irish Sea. These were all ignored or brushed aside.

So has this news persuaded the British government to be more selective about the promises they believe from the Nuclear Power lobby? No.

The Government has given its tacit backing to a substantial increase in the share of UK electricity generated from nuclear power to 30 per cent or more.

Senior officials in the power industry have told The Times that John Hutton, the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, has expressed support privately for an increase in electricity generation through nuclear power from 18 per cent of the present mix to “30 or 35 per cent” in the long term.

The increase would support the Government's aims of cutting emissions of carbon dioxide by 20 per cent by 2020 and reducing Britain's dependence on imported oil and gas from volatile countries, such as Russia and Iran." -- The Times

What a surprise for everyone.

Further Reading:

• Nuclear Reactors for the UK - is this a Good Idea?