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Nuclear plant Sellafield Ltd has been fined after two workers were exposed to radiation at their plutonium finishing and storage site at Cumbria. The company pleaded guilty to the charges and accepted responsibility for the mishap.

The mishap occurred in 2007 and involved two workers who were working in a room previously used to store plutonium materials for storage and monitoring. The workers were engaged in clearing out the room. During this process, they had to remove a section of the concrete flooring that was the site of an earlier radioactive spillage.

As the workers drilled into the floor, they inhaled some of the dust which rose from the drilling. Following this, the two men were immediately evacuated from the room and asked to remove their PVC suits that were also covered with the dust. One of the men’s suits registered high levels of irradiation by the monitors placed outside the room. The enclosure itself was found to be highly contaminated.

The workers fortunately did to show any ill health immediately following the accident, as the levels of dust they had ingested were well within permissible limits. However, the Health and Safety Executive is taking a very serious view of the incident.

Speaking about the case, the Superintending Nuclear Inspector of HSE, Mark Bassett, said that while the contamination did not beach high-risk levels, the incident was still evidence that Sellafield had not carried out proper risk assessments and had not put adequate safety measures in place to ensure that there was zero risk involved in the procedure. The company should have had effective measures in place given the sensitive nature of the materials that were in use.

Following the legal proceedings where Sellafield was charged with breach of the 1974 Health and Safety Regulations, a fine of £75,000 has been imposed on the company. Additional costs of £26,100 will also require to be borne by the company. Sellafield Ltd has pleaded guilty to the charges.

The Health and Safety Policy is a key factor of any organisations health and safety management system; Workplace Law’s health and safety policy documentation can assist organisations in implementing their own policies to comply with relevant legislation and to help define key health and safety roles and responsibilities of staff in the workplace.

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