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BNFL announces management, safety changes
BNFL announces management, safety changes
LONDON, April 18 (Reuters) - British Nuclear Fuels said on Tuesday it
was making sweeping changes to its board and senior management in
response to a damning safety report and to calm angry customers.
Troubled BNFL also detailed how it intends to address safety
deficiencies at its Sellafield facility.
``This is a defining moment, the beginning of the recovery process,''
newly-appointed chief executive Norman Askew told Reuters.
Over half the board is being replaced. All six non-executive
directors are going - four in August, one by the end of the year and
the last by the end of 2001. Board member and finance director Ross
Chiese is also to quit the group along with human resource director
Roger Leek and safety director David Coulston.
Energy Minister Helen Liddell, who ordered an overhaul at BNFL
following a devasting safety report in February, endorsed the staff
and safety changes.
``I welcome the changes announced by the company today, which I
believe represent the kind of positive response needed to address the
problems faced by the company,'' she said.
Askew, appointed in March after previous chief executive John Taylor
was ousted, said in addition to top level departures 70 new safety-
related jobs were being created.
A major organisational change would ensure ``clear and unambiguous
accountability,'' he said. Sellafield site head Brian Watson becomes
director of operations, Sellafield, while a new expanded safety
director's job has been created.
A new team of independent compliance inspectors is also being set up
to help meet the recommendations made in February by the Nuclear
Installations Inspectorate's (NII).
The NII's head, Laurence Williams, said BNFL's plans were a good
``foundation to deliver the necessary safety improvements.''
Williams, who castigated BNFL in his report for its sloopy safety
culture, declaring there had been ``systematic management failure''
at Sellafield, said his inspectors would monitor BNFL's progress.
Nigel Hawkins, utility analyst at Williams de Broe, said BNFL still
needed to reassure key customers Japan and Germany.
Both countries put business with BNFL on hold after revelations that
Sellafield staff had falsified data on Mox fuel, a combination of
plutonium and uranium, sent to them.
``Duff Mox fuel is still duff Mox fuel whoever the board members
are,'' Hawkins said.
Thomas Elsner, a spokesman at the German Environment Ministry said
the German government would examine BNFL's safety improvement
programme but it was too early to comment on whether the ban might be
lifted.
Switzerland and Sweden have also banned trade with BNFL as an
international campaign against the group has been gathering pace.
Ireland and Denmark have called for Sellafield's closure while BNFL
faces opposition to its U.S. waste clean-up work.
Environmental group Greenpeace called BNFL's response to the NII
report ``woefully inadequate'' while Friends of the Earth said the
proposals amounted to ``rearranging the deck-chairs on the
Titantic.'' Both said BNFL should quit the reprocessing business.
Government plans to sell off 49 percent of BNFL for about 1.5 billion
pounds have been be postponed until after the next general election
because of the safety scandal.
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