Sellafield, Europe's most dangerous nuclear site, has suffered deterioration in a leak from a large radioactive waste deposit that could pose a risk to the public.
Safety concerns at the collapsed building, as well as cracks in the toxic waste tank known as B30, have sparked diplomatic tensions with countries including the US, Norway and Ireland, which fear Sellafield has failed to contain them. problems.
Leakage of radioactive liquid from one of the UK's "highest nuclear hazards" - a dilapidated building near Cumbrian known as the "Magnox Swarf Silo (MSSS)" - is likely to continue until 2050. This could bring extremely dangerous problems, risking groundwater pollution, according to an official document.
According to an investigation by The Guardian , cracks have also widened in the surface of the concrete and asphalt covering the large basin containing decades of nuclear waste.
Sellafield, a large 6 sq km site on the Cumbrian coast that employs 11,000 people, stores and processes nuclear waste from weapons programs and nuclear power generation, and is the largest such facility in Europe.
A document sent to Sellafield board members in November 2022 and seen by the Guardian raises widespread concerns about a degradation of safety across the country, warning of "cumulative risk" from failings ranging from nuclear safety to standards of asbestos and fire.
A scientist on an expert panel advising the UK government on the health impact of radiation told the Guardian that the dangers posed by the leak and other chemical leaks at Sellafield have been hidden.