Sellafield’s safety chief steps down

The director of safety and security at the Sellafield nuclear site in England has quit. Former army officer Mark Neate will remain in place for the next “two-three months” until his successor is found, according to the British taxpayer-owned company that runs the facility.

Mr Neate’s exit comes just weeks after Sellafield, a former power plant that now operates as a nuclear dump, came under intense media scrutiny in Britain over the state of its cybersecurity, infrastructure and workplace culture. The facility is situated in Cumbria, 170km from the Irish coast.

A spokesman for Sellafield said Mr Neate’s departure was “not connected at all” to the reports published in the Guardian newspaper, which alleged that Sellafield’s systems had been hacked by Russian and Chinese cyber groups. Sellafield has denied that any such hacking took place, although it has been placed under “enhanced scrutiny” by the UK’s Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR).

[ Minister briefed by UK authorities about Sellafield leak and alleged cyberattack ]

“Mark made the decision to leave at the back end of last summer, but there was just a time lag in announcing it. It is entirely coincidental that it has been made public after the recent media coverage,” Matt Legg, a spokesman for Sellafield Ltd, said.

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The company, which is wholly owned by the UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), announced Mr Neate’s departure via a statement lauding his track record as the facility’s security chief. He served a decade on Sellafield’s executive board. He joined the plant in 2012 from the British army, where he served abroad in combat hotpots such as Helmand Province in Iraq.

“Mark has been utterly dedicated in his service, bringing the highest levels of professionalism and expertise to a challenging portfolio,” said Euan Hutton, chief executive of Sellafield.

Mr Hutton last month rejected allegations of serious safety failings at Sellafield, which were contained in a series of articles in the Guardian. It reported allegations from whistleblowers of a toxic culture at the plant, as well as concerns over cybersecurity. It also said Sellafield had an underground leak that could potentially pose a risk to the public.

The ONR later told the BBC that the facility was “currently not meeting the high standards that we require in cyber security”. Claire Countinho, Britain’s environment secretary, last month said reports of security failings at the plant were “deeply concerning”. She also wrote to the NDA seeking a “full explanation”.

Sellafield, which employs 11,000, was previously used to generate electricity but now stores nuclear waste as well as the UK’s civil plutonium stockpile.

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