The UK Government is expected to give its response to the recent House of Lords select committee report on nuclear waste policy this month. The announcement is possible during the week beginning 17th May and a Green Paper will be published later this year. The new date has now been given as July 2005 instead of January 2003. Construction work started in April 1993 and the company blames construction delays for the postponement. Contaminated water had been leaking from the facility, for the seawater used to cool the original fast reactor at the site, at the rate of about a litre a month, possibly since it was last used in 1977.
Steps are underway now to empty the facility.
The German environment minister Juergen Trittin has announced an end to funding for the European pressurised water reactor joint German-French design project.