Sellafield

Site of a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant on the coast of Cumbria, northwest England. It was known as Windscale until 1971, when the management of the site was transferred from the UK Atomic Energy Authority to British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. Since 2005 it has been owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. It reprocesses more than 1,000 tonnes of spent fuel from nuclear reactors annually. The site is engaged in decommissioning two nuclear ‘piles’ – one of which was the seat of a serious radiation-releasing fire in 1957 – and the Calder Hall nuclear power station, which closed in 2003. There have been a series of incidents involving radioactive discharges and failures of safety procedures, and Sellafield is accused of contaminating the Irish Sea with radioactive discharges. Ocean currents carry measurable amounts of radioactive pollution to the coast of Norway; both Norway and the Republic of Ireland have objected to Sellafield's operations.