Public Accounts CommitteeWritten evidence from Sellafield Ltd

We would like the Committee to be aware that in response to Ms Hillier’s question number 373:

“ So that is working fine now and workers are able to work in it normally—there are no problems with ventilation or anything like that?”

Whilst Mr Price’s response of:

“They are able to right now, yes. “

Is accurate, it would be helpful for the Committee to understand that there had been an incident in that plant earlier in the week and Mr Price was fully aware.

There are three vitrification lines and people are working normally in lines one and two. That incident did involve a short loss of ventilation in line three but this was quickly restored. Some clean up and recovery work is necessary and that is in progress.

It was certainly not Mr Price’s intention to provide what could be perceived as a partial answer and I hope you will understand that this was towards the end of a long and gruelling session.

6 December 2013