Fouth quarter of 2001
New WISE-Paris Analysis: Plane Crash on Sellafield could have Devastating Consequences
File in PDF format: Airliner Crash on Nuclear Facilities - The Sellafield Case (7p., 417 Ko)
WISE-Paris, 29 October 2001
[Posted 02/11/2001]
Air-plane crash on the high level waste storage tanks was one of the potential triggering events for a severe accident at Sellafield taken into consideration in the study WISE-Paris carried out for the General Directorate of Research of the European Parliament. However, it is only after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 that WISE-Paris carried out more detailed analysis into protection against air-plane crash at La Hague and Sellafield.
With a radioactive inventory of close to 100 times the amount of caesium-137 release during the Chernobyl disaster, the high level waste tanks at Sellafield contain an unmatched quantity of readily dispersable radioactive material in a storage area that is not protected against the crash of large aircrafts. As WISE-Paris' analysis shows, the entire building housing the tanks could be destroyed or severely damaged in an air-plane crash.
The following information on "The Sellafield Case" was first released by the UK television program "Dispatches" on Channel-4 on 1st of November 2001.
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