This is a statement from Sellafield Ltd on the future of the Thorp reprocessing plant, in answer to a statement made by Cumbrian’s Opposed to a Radioactive Environment (CORE)  2.6.09.

Over the past few months Thorp has been carrying out a reprocessing campaign.

This 300 tonne campaign has, to date, seen over 200 tonnes of spent fuel reprocessed, with the campaign on schedule to finish sometime next month (July).

On a routine basis, following reprocessing campaigns Thorp goes into a normal process called an engineering shutdown, which is basically a period of previously planned and scheduled maintenance and data collection.

During the next few months, while Thorp is in its engineering shutdown, assessments of the plant and supporting facilities will be carried out, as planned, and maintenance will be performed.

Work in Thorp will continue with a full staff, as it usually does during engineering shut-downs, and once all assessments have been completed Sellafield Ltd will apply to the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate for a further license to continue to operate Evaporator C, in accordance with previous agreements.

Sellafield Ltd, Nuclear Management Partners and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority pro-actively hold regular meetings with Mr Forwood inform him of activities at Sellafield.

However, to suggest that the information about the planned Thorp engineering work was revealed in such a meeting is misleading.

At a meeting of the West Cumbria Site Stakeholder Group’s Commercial Sub-committee in January, which was attended by both Mr Forwood and members of the press, we outlined that there was a licence in place to process the 300te of fuel that make up the current Thorp campaign, and that once that campaign had been completed further assessment of the plant and evaporators would be required in order to gain a further licence from the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate for future reprocessing.

Recent media speculation surrounding the future of Thorp has focused on Evaporator B, which was taken, temporarily, off-line as a precautionary measure after an operational anomaly. Evap B is now available for full operation.

The planned engineering shut-down in Thorp is not related to what happened with Evap B, and we are disappointed that a planned maintenance period is being presented as a closure that threatens the future of the plant and its workforce.

Evap C is working well and will be used over the next month to complete the current campaign before the planned engineering shut-down begins.

The maintenance work, assessments and data collection that we are able to complete during planned shut-downs actually help us secure the future of Thorp and reprocessing at Sellafield.