Cumbria calls for Government to ensure employment gap is bridged after plant closure

Cumbria County Council's leader and cabinet member responsible for nuclear issues have highlighted the risk of West Cumbria leaking its skilled and dedicated nuclear workforce following the news that Sellafield's MOX plant is to be closed.

The plant, which recycles plutonium into mixed oxide fuel, directly employs around 600 people, but a total of around 1,000 local jobs are linked to its operation. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has announced it plans to close the plant following the dramatic fall in demand from Japanese nuclear plants after the March 2011 earthquake and Fukushima nuclear crisis.

Cllr Eddie Martin, leader of Cumbria County Council, said:

"The Government must surely step in to ensure that nuclear skills and jobs are retained in West Cumbria for the longer term future of the industry and for the regeneration of Cumbria as a whole.

"The most effective way of doing this is for the Government to immediately confirm it will commission and build a new Sellafield MOX plant that will serve modern needs, as soon as possible, not least because other countries, such as Russia, are building MOX plants and the commercial opportunities may well bypass us if we are not quick off the mark."

Cllr Tim Knowles, Cumbria County Council's Cabinet member responsible for nuclear issues, commented: "What we now need from Government is an immediate and clear commitment to invest in a new generation of MOX plant at Sellafield so that we can deal with the UK's plutonium stockpile and produce a fuel that will contribute to low carbon energy generation. Sellafield's MOX workforce need to know that they have a future on the Sellafield site, otherwise we risk losing their skills.

"We always expected this MOX plant to be decommissioned, but our expectation and hope was that it would happen after a new MOX plant was installed. The Government is working on a massive programme around nuclear energy for the 21st Century and Cumbria is an integral part of that programme. What we can't have is a situation where jobs disappear and nuclear skills leak out of the region because of the MOX closure.

"The Government needs to take a long term view about the needs and demands of the nuclear industry and ensure there is a smooth transition between where we are now and where we need to be in 10 or 20 years time. It is crucial that the existing MOX employees are redeployed within Sellafield and we don't just cut off the sub-contractors in the region who depend on it for income and risk losing their skills too.”