Sellafield, the nuclear plant that is Western Europe’s most heavily contaminated industrial site, is facing an unexpected environmental challenge.
The 262-hectare (645 acres) plant in West Cumbria is being overrun by seagulls, mice and stray cats, and managers are battling to contain the problem. Things have become so serious that a cull of seabirds is being considered. There are concerns that some have been swimming in open ponds containing plutonium and radioactive waste, some of which date back to Britain’s atomic weapons programme of the 1950s and 1960s.
“It’s a coastal site so there are thousands of seagulls around,” said Martin Forwood, of Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment. “They fly in and float around on the open waste ponds and act as a gateway to poison the wider area.”
Ali McKibbin, media relations manager at the plant, confirmed that 350 animal carcasses were being stored in an industrial freezer on the site, mostly birds but also some small mammals.
Under Environment Agency rules, any animal that dies within the perimeter fence must be treated as nuclear waste, because it may have been exposed to radiation. The carcasses could not be allowed to decay naturally, Ms McKibbin said, because they were considered “putrescent” nuclear waste, and so were kept frozen until they could be disposed of in a special landfill facility on the site.
One of the open-waste storage ponds contains significant quantities of plutonium. About 30 new carcasses are collected every month. One source said that bird-control was subcontracted to a company called Avian, which employs two full-time staff at the site to control numbers and deter birds from nesting in and fouling buildings. “It’s a big contract — egg-pricking, pigeon trapping, nest disposal — the lot,” said the source, who works for a rival pest control company in the North of England.
Ms McKibbin added that discussions were under way about an intensive culling programme. Drugged bait would probably be the method, although she emphasised that no final decision had yet been taken. The seagull problem was “under control”, there was no danger to the public and any methods used to control bird numbers would be humane, she said.
The sprawling site, which contains hundreds of buildings — many of which are scheduled for demolition — lies along coastline bordering the Lake District National Park. As well as birds, various other animals are frequently found on site. “It is a large industrial site so there are quite a number of stray cats,” Ms McKibbin said.
A company called Mitie won a contract in 2006 to supply Sellafield with services including pest control. Mitie employs 450 staff at the site, although few of these are involved in pest control.
Ms Mckibbin said: “A professional pest control organisation is employed to manage the number of gulls. All activities are done under licence in a safe and humane manner that causes the gulls minimum distress and suffering.”
The site, which used to be known as Windscale, is where Britain developed the technology to build the atomic bomb and is the location of the world’s first civil nuclear power station. Britain’s high-level nuclear waste is stored at the site, which is owned by the Government through the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.
– from timesonline.co.uk