Nuclear failures rewarded
27 breaches of radioactive guidelines at BNFL in one year
BY ROBBIE MacGABHANN
British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) has made losses for the past
two years. In December 1999, it was found to have falsified
safety data in one of its fuel reprocessing plants and in the
last year had 27 breaches of its environmental licenses. Add in
the litany of accidents, including last month's days of
misinformation over lost fuel rods, and you have a company with
serious problems.
You have a company where management is
clearly not doing its job properly. Well, maybe not, because
despite an admission from BNFL chairperson Hugh Collum that
``there are areas where performance was clearly unacceptable'',
the board at BNFL have paid some its members substantial bonuses.
BNFL's annual report, published last week, showed that chief
executive Norman Askew, earned a bonus of £75,250 on top of his
£350,000 basic salary. Finance director John Edwards won a bonus
of £44,750 to add to his £191,250 annual salary. Two other
directors also got bonuses of £38,000 apiece.
BNFL's annual report also contains a range of interesting
statements and interpretations of the company's dire financial
performance. Despite losses across the board, including their
flagship Thorp reprocessing plant at Sellafield, BNFL are forging
ahead with the sad news for Irish citizens that the notorious
Sellafield site is ``key to the future'' for the company.
The annual report also claims that in Britain, ``radioactive
discharges to the environment from our operating sites remained
within authorised limits''. This sounds ok until you read on and
find that BNFL then admits, ``we did not comply with some of the
technical conditions of our environmental licenses'', and that
their ``performance in this area has not improved since last
year''.
This `non-compliance' happened on 27 occasions during 2000,
once a fortnight on average. Seven of the 27 `events' involved
discharges above the legal limit. Many of these discharges are
into what BNFL calls the marine environment, the sea to you and
me. Incredibly, it will not be until 2020 that BNFL meets
international requirements for stemming radioactive leaks into
the sea.
Sinn Féin's Louth representative and Dundalk
councillor, Arthur Morgan, criticised the bonuses paid to board
members. Morgan said, ``it is incredible to believe that bonuses
could be paid to the management of not just a loss making
company, but one that has breached environmental guidelines so
many times in one year. This is a slap in the face for the people
of Louth, who live in daily fear of what could go wrong at BNFL's
plants on Britain's west coast''.
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