The report, "Ionizing Radiation Exposure of the UK Population: 2005 Review" discusses exposure from nuclear fuel reprocessing. Reprocessing is carried out at a plant called Sellafield, located at Cumbria on the Irish Sea. Sellafield is operated by British Nuclear Group, part of a holding company called BNFL.

In 1983, according to Sellafield's Internet site, a "beach incident" occurred in which "highly radioactive discharges resulted in beach closure."

The radiation exposure report says, "Although there have been decreases in discharges made by Sellafield in recent years, the environmental levels have not reduced substantially. This is mainly due to historical discharges of 137-cs (radioactive cesium). Liquid wastes from Sellafield are discharged directly to the Irish Sea via a pipeline."

Seafood consumers were believed to ingest some radioactive material, and exposure was also possible from sediments or through handling contaminated fishing gear.

Still, the report concludes, the exposure was "in general . . . low."

Discussing fallout from past nuclear tests, discharges of radioactive waste and consumer products, the report says, "Exposures to members of the public from these sources remain at a very low level."

Six years ago, the British government temporarily shut down a reprocessing plant because officials feared workers had "deliberately falsified records relating to the quality of fuel pellets," says a Deseret Morning News article from that time.

Later, in April 2005, the thermal oxide reprocessing plant at Sellafield was shut down when a remote-controlled camera showed that a pipe had leaked badly. It turned out that the leak had begun months before, "possibly as early as June 2004," says a report authorized by British Nuclear Group Sellafield Ltd.

Britain's Nuclear Decommissioning Agency released a report in March 2006 pointing to metal fatigue as the cause of the failure. A large quantity, about 83 cubic meters, of "highly radioactive and corrosive" liquid ran into a secondary containment pool. There it remained, and apparently nobody was exposed to the toxic witch's brew.

Still, the incident raised concern. The government placed 49 requirements on British Nuclear Group Sellafield Ltd. before it could restart the plant.

"EnergySolutions cannot comment on the details of specific operational matters in the UK," Hopkins wrote in an e-mail to the Deseret Morning News. "We note however that installed engineering systems fully contained the material and that no material was released to the environment, and no personnel were injured or exposed to the leaked material.

"We also saw in recent UK press articles that the plant in question is due to restart shortly."

Hopkins wrote that EnergySolutions believes that in the United States, the possibility of such accidents is extremely low.