30kg nuke material 'missing'
2005-02-17 12:36
London - About 30kg of plutonium, enough for seven or
eight nuclear bombs, are listed as "unaccounted for" at the British nuclear site at Sellafied, a newspaper said on Thursday.
The annual audit of nuclear material at all of Britain's civil
nuclear installations is expected to reveal that the quantity of
plutonium was classified as "material unaccounted for" last year,
The Times said.
British Nuclear Fuels, which operates the plant at Sellafield in northwest England, is expected to dismiss the figures as a "paper loss" and an "accounting issue," according to the newspaper.
But independent experts were worried about the disclosure.
"They make this claim of an auditing problem but I would expect them to be overzealous in the current climate of fears about terrorism," John Large, an independent nuclear consultant, was quoted as saying.
Frank Barnaby, a specialist in nuclear weapons, told The Times
"there will always be some material unaccounted for but this is a
dramatic development." - AFP
- SAPA