[ RadSafe ] Britain downplays 66 pounds of plutonium listed asmissing

[Fred Dawson]

FYI press release from BNFL

http://www.bnfl.co.uk/index.aspx?page=969

Publication of Materials Unaccounted for (MUF)
Media Response - Publication of Materials Unaccounted for (MUF)


MUF figures have been produced since 1977 and vary from year to year. They 
are the result of measurement uncertainties. Some years there are apparent 
gains, some years there are apparent losses.

These uncertainties exist in all industrial processes, for example the gold 
industry experiences the same thing when extracting gold from ores - the 
amount recovered never precisely matches the amount estimated in the ore.

No nuclear material has been stolen. Figures change from year to year. 
Negative numbers do not mean material has disappeared; positive numbers don't 
mean material has been created.

None has been removed from our plants and there are no security implications 
of this accounting issue. There are also no safety or environmental 
implications whatsoever.

Euratom, the European regulator with responsibility for this issue, has 
accepted all inventories as satisfactory. In fact, The International Atomic 
Energy Authority (IAEA) sets international standard on these uncertainties 
at 1% of the total throughput. The latest Sellafield figures represent only 
around 0.5% of the Sellafield throughput.

The techniques we use to account for our nuclear material are 
internationally approved and recognised as best practice. In particular, the 
systems of statistical measurement and control in the Thorp reprocessing 
plant to estimate the amount of plutonium are the most advanced in the 
world.


Group Media Relations
Daresbury
17 February, 2005

--------------------------------

Fred Dawson
New Malden
Surrey. KT3 5BP
England











----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Charly Frey" <cfrey at ssi-group.net>
To: "radsafe" <radsafe at radlab.nl>; <know_nukes at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 17, 2005 3:12 PM
Subject: [ RadSafe ] Britain downplays 66 pounds of plutonium listed 
asmissing


>A British nuclear reprocessing plant cannot account for nearly 66 pounds of
> plutonium, but authorities believe it's an accounting issue rather than a
> loss of potential bomb-making material, the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority
> said today.
>
> The amount of material listed as missing at the Sellafield plant in
> northwestern England was "within international standards of expected
> measurement accuracies for closing a nuclear material balance at the type 
> of
> facility concerned," the authority said.
>
> "There is no evidence to suggest that any of the apparent losses reported
> were real losses of nuclear material," the authority added.
>
> In 2003, the processing plant reported it could not account for 42 pounds 
> of
> plutonium. The plant said that was consistent with figures published since
> the 1970s.
>
> Plutonium accounts for 1 percent of the nuclear material handled at
> Sellafield, the rest if uranium.
>
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