In 2004 the Commission criticised safety at the site and complained that EU inspectors have been denied access to some facilities. On Wednesday the Commission warned the British Nuclear Group Sellafield – part of government-owned British Nuclear Fuels – for breaches of accounting and reporting standards. Although the warning reflects concerns in Brussels over the site’s operation, the Commission said it had no grounds to suspect nuclear material had gone missing. “It does not find that nuclear material was actually lost or diverted from its intended purpose and does not concern the issue of nuclear safety".

The concern centres around Building B30 - known locally as 'dirty thirty' - a 50-year-old Magnox spent nuclear waste fuel storage pond. There are inadequate records of exactly what nuclear materials the plant contains. Estimates put the amount ofplutonium in B30 at 1.3 tonnes. The European Commission has criticised BNFL for failing to provide information about the nuclear material stored in B30 and for not giving European safety inspectors proper access to the site.

Financial Times 16th February 2006
BBC 16th February 2006
Guardian 16th Feb 2006

European Commission issues nuclear safeguard obligations warning to British Nuclear Group Sellafield
European Commission Press, 15th February 2006

Earlier European Commission Releases:-
Nuclear safeguards: the Commission imposes binding measures to put an end to an infringement at the Sellafield site in the United Kingdom. 30th March 2004
Nuclear safety at Sellafield: the Commission turns to ECJ, 3rd September 2004

Greenpeace European Unit Press Release 30th March 2004

Greenpeave Briefing on B30, April 2004