Unplanned Events

Court Sets Date For Sellafield Ltd Trial Over Alleged Exposure Incident

By David Dalton
17 August 2018

Court Sets Date For Sellafield Ltd Trial Over Alleged Exposure Incident
The Sellafield nuclear site in Cumbria, northwest England.

17 Aug (NucNet): A provisional trial date has been set over an alleged health and safety breach by Sellafield Ltd involving an employee being exposed to plutonium at the Sellafield nuclear site in Cumbria, northwest England.

On 16 August 2018, Carlisle Crown Court heard Sellafield Ltd was not ready to enter a plea until its own appointed experts had reported back their findings.

The company, which is responsible for remediating and decommissioning the Sellafield site, is alleged to have failed to discharge its general health, safety and welfare duty to its employees, contrary to Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work Act. The maximum penalty for the offence is an unlimited fine.

Full details of the allegations have not been made public, but at a previous court hearing it was disclosed the incident involved an exposure to plutonium at Sellafield on or before 2 February 2017.

In May 2018 the UK’s nuclear regulator said it was prosecuting Sellafield Ltd after an employee was exposed to “dangerous levels of radiation”.

The Office for Nuclear Regulation said it was taking action against Sellafield Ltd over an incident in February in which a worker was contaminated.

A spokesperson for the ONR said at the time: “For legal reasons we are unable to comment further on the details of the case which is now the subject of active court proceedings.”

In a statement yesterday the ONR said: “During a hearing at Carlisle Crown Court, Sellafield Ltd entered no plea to charges relating to an incident in February 2017, which resulted in personal contamination to a Sellafield Ltd employee.”

Craig Morris, prosecuting on behalf of the ONR, said it had lined up 20 witnesses, including a number of medical staff who handled the contamination after the event.

James Ageros, representing Sellafield by telephone, said he thought it was “highly unlikely” that a large number of medical witnesses would be required to attend a trial.

Judge James Adkin set a provisional trial date of 25 March 2018 at the same court. A plea and trial preparation hearing will take place on 2 November.

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