Thu 24 Aug 2006
[By Alan Irving from Whitehaven News 24/08] “IT is a recipe for disaster — it will put safety at risk on the site.� That was the angry reaction of Prospect, the major nuclear staff union, over British Nuclear Fuels plans to sell off only a small part off its operating arm, BNG, which has 8,500 on the Sellafield payroll. It has come has a shock about-turn to the nuclear workforce who were told BNG would be sold as one and they would all be transferred to one new employer under contract from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. Peter Clements, Prospect branch secretary, said yesterday: “Selling off Sellafield piecemeal is a recipe for disaster, we think it will compromise safety. It will be about cutting costs if you sell off different parts of the business to different companies. The danger here is that we’re going to have another Railtrack, with one lot doing one bit of maintenance and another doing something else – nobody will know who’s doing what. Safety and communications will suffer. “It is disgusting and deplorable that this has been done without any consultation with the unions. [full article]