Umweltverbrechen multinationaler Konzerne - Greenpeace

Subsequent
behaviour of company
around 3500 highly radioactive sources at Sellafield (including losing
some). In 1999/2000 BNFL received 15 non-compliance with
legislation and six enforcement notices from the UK Environment
Agency, for example, for failing to report dischages of radioactive
gases from Sellafield.
Public action: Sellafield has sparked public demonstrations of
concern for many years. In the past year, there have been large
demonstrations in Ireland and Norway, sea-bourne protests from
Norwegian non-governmental groups, and the a 1-million signature
petition from Ireland delivered to Tony Blair by Ali Hewison, the wife
of U2's Bono.
Declaring bankrupt: An announcement by the UK Government on
28 th November 2001 that ownership of Sellafield will be transferred
from BNFL to a Liabilities Management Authority (LMA) amounted to
a tacit admission that activities at Sellafield are now regarded by the
Government as uneconomic. The Secretary of State for Trade and
Industry, Patricia Hewitt told the House of Commons that
“… to enable the LMA [Liabilities Management Authority] to exercise
its role across the whole public sector civil nuclear liabilities portfolio,
the Government now propose to take on responsibility for most of
BNFL's nuclear liabilities and the associated assets. The most
significant of those will be the Sellafield and Magnox sites”.
Poor throughputs have plagued the THORP reprocessing plant, and
are causing a growing disquiet amongst BNFL’s overseas
reprocessing customers. There is now serious doubt over the profit
projections originally used to justify THORP.
In documents leaked to Greenpeace, BNFL customers recently
stated that: “…the next business plan will result in another increase
of more than 10% in operating costs, mainly due to the projected 11 th
year of operation of THORP … such cost increases and
uncertainties are commercially highly unsatisfactory and make it
impossible to manage our own fuel cycle business economically,
given the cost pressures we are under.”
Having expressed their displeasure at increasing costs in spring
2001, the foreign customers were reported in October 2001 to have
agreed on new contract terms. Although the customers will pay more
than originally anticipated, the extra cost has been described as “not
unreasonable”, suggesting that BNFL must have agreed to pay some
of the costs of operating THORP for longer. Above all, customers
were said to be satisfied to have limited their exposure to delays in
vitrification of high-level waste at Sellafield, and clarified that they
would not be billed for THORP decommissioning costs 182 . What is
not clear yet, is whether the customers have been told that the
increases in operating costs are unlikely to stop at 10% and will
probably be as much as 30%.
Sellafield’s second largest customer, after the Japanese utilities, is
British Energy. BE recently called for an end to reprocessing. A BE
spokesman stated that:
182 Nuclear Fuel 15 th October 2001. “BNFL overseas customers agree on new reprocessing contract terms”.
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