Sellafield drum sent to wrong facility in transport mix-up

A DRUM was taken to the wrong facility following a transport mix-up at Sellafield, an incident report updated on October 8 has revealed.

The incident happened on February 27 when a Sellafield Ltd driver transported a clamp seal drum within an internal containment system from the nuclear site to an off-site National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) facility.

On arrival, the driver contacted NNL to confirm receipt of the consignment, as required by transport instructions.

It was then discovered that the drum should instead have been delivered to an NNL facility within the Sellafield site.

The consignment was reloaded onto the vehicle and returned to Sellafield, where it was secured at the correct facility.

In its incident report, Sellafield Ltd said: "There is no risk to the general public, or the environment and our regulators have been informed."

The company classified the incident as Level 1 on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES).

The report said: "Sellafield Ltd rated the event as an INES (International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale) Level 1 – Anomaly, due to procedural inadequacies with significant defence in depth remaining."