Nuclear leak enough to make 20 bombs

LONDON - A leak of highly radioactive nuclear fuel dissolved in enough concentrated nitric acid to half-fill an Olympic-size swimming pool has forced the closure of a controversial British reprocessing plant.

The highly dangerous mixture, containing about 20 tonnes of uranium and plutonium fuel, leaked through a fractured pipe into a stainless steel chamber which is so radioactive that it is impossible to enter, the Guardian newspaper reported.

The leak - at the $5.4 billion Thorp reprocessing plant in northwest England - was discovered last month during an automated inspection.

Repairing the pipes and recovering the spilled liquids are expected to take months and may need special robots, which will have to be built, the Times reported.

The newspaper calculated that 200kg of plutonium in the leaked solution was enough to make 20 nuclear weapons.

The material had to be accounted for to conform to international safeguards aimed at preventing nuclear materials falling into the wrong hands.

The British Nuclear Group, which runs the plant, said the leak posed no danger to the public, environment or staff at the Sellafields facility.

The leak is likely to be a financial disaster for British taxpayers since income from the Thorp plant - calculated to be more than $2.5 million a day - is supposed to pay for cleaning up redundant British nuclear facilities.

The closure comes at a difficult time for the nuclear industry.

Britain is struggling to cut greenhouse gas emissions despite increasing wind farm construction, while generating capacity will also be hit by the rundown of some of Britain's coal-fired power stations.

The decision on whether to build a new generation of nuclear power stations is among the most sensitive Tony Blair faces at the start of his third term as Prime Minister.

On Friday, the British Nuclear Group met the Government safety regulator, the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate, to discuss how to mop up the leak and repair the pipe.

The company has to get the inspectors' approval before proceeding.

A problem at the plant was first noticed on April 19 when operators could not account for all the spent fuel that had been dissolved in nitric acid.

It was supposed to be travelling through the plant to be measured and separated into uranium, plutonium and waste products in a series of centrifuges. Remote cameras scanning the plant found the leak.

British Nuclear Group managing director Barry Snelson ordered the plant to be closed. "Let me reassure people that the plant is in a safe and stable state," he said.

The company has set up a board of inquiry to find out how the leak happened.

- AGENCIES