Safety authority puts dent in British nuclear hopes

According to The Guardian (UK), "The government's safety watchdog is cracking down on Britain's biggest and oldest nuclear complex after a series of radioactive leaks and safety blunders, despite private sector managers receiving multimillion-pound "performance-related" payments from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority". The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) will take legal action for force the vast Sellafield plant in Cumbria to improve its safety record. The revelations of serious safety flaws at Britain's largest nuclear installation will do little to improve the industry's case to build new reactors. Further embarassment has been caused by the revelation that Nuclear Management Partners (NMP) – a consortium involving Amec, URS and Areva and which took over ownership of Sellafield in 2008  – "is believed to have made "profits" of up to £50m over a 12-month period," according to the Guardian article.