Three Fired For False Records On Japan Nuclear Fuel

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Thursday October 7 10:15 AM ET 

Three Fired For False Records On Japan Nuclear Fuel  

LONDON (Reuters) - British Nuclear Fuels has sacked three staff for 
falsifying records on controversial nuclear fuel it sent to Japan, 
the company said Thursday.  

BNFL's chief executive, John Taylor, has traveled to Japan to 
apologize for the mistake and to assure worried customers it will not 
happen again, a spokesman said.  

The three employees were dismissed on October 1 for falsifying data 
on a shipment of MOX (mixed oxide) fuel that left Britain by sea in 
July and arrived in Japan in late September.  

Opponents of the MOX fuel say it exacerbates the problem of nuclear 
waste. Greenpeace tried to halt the shipment of plutonium and uranium 
fuel pellets, but was blocked by a British High Court judge.  

BNFL said the data falsification had no safety implications and were 
a ``quality assurance issue.''  

``The Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) 
and customer Kansai Electric Power Co have accepted the 
specifications of the fuel,'' the spokesman said.  

The departure of Taylor for Japan is an indication of how serious 
BNFL regards the matter, especially as the company has an eye on its 
partial privatization which is set to happen sometime before 2002. 
BNFL needs Japanese customers for its MOX fuel, say analysts, but it 
is a delicate time in Japan following last week's accident at a 
uranium processing unit.  

A shadow already looms over MOX's future in Britain. The company's 
300 million pound showcase Sellafield Mox Plant (SMP) which was 
designed to produce the fuel pellets still does not have an operating 
license two years after building work finished.  

The British government has delayed approving the start of full 
operations at the SMP several times. The delay centers around the 
government's requirement that the plant is commercially viable and 
can turn a profit.  

Opponents say the potential market for BNFL's MOX fuel is artificial. 
The various studies into SMP's money-making potential have been 
dogged by controversy and bad feeling between different government 
bodies, BNFL and anti-nuclear groups.  

``MOX is more expensive as a fuel than uranium and requires 
modifications to existing nuclear power stations to use it. A lot of 
utilities are reluctant to use the fuel. I think it is telling that 
British Energy is not prepared to use MOX,'' said Rachel Western, a 
nuclear campaigner at Friends of the Earth. 

Sandy Perle
E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net 
Personal Website: http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/1205

"The object of opening the mind, as of opening 
the mouth, is to close it again on something solid"
              - G. K. Chesterton -
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