She has said the levels have increased sixfold since 1996 and raised the issue when she met up with Michael Meacher the UK Environment minister in a recent meeting. The abatement plants at Sellafield remove radionclides such as plutonium but Technetium-99 isn't removed and discharges of this nuclide have increased as Sellafield tries to clear up it's backlog of waste. BNFL have said after consultation with the Health & Safety Executive(H.S.E) by the year 2015 they will have reduced the level to what is called a 'Buffer level', which means the smallest amount needed to make the process work. Technetium-99 is produced as a result of the fission of uranium and plutonium in a nuclear reactor and worryingly it is a long-lived radioactive element, This substance does not occur naturally and has a half-life of 213,000 years. which means the length of time for a given amount to decrease to one half of its original amount.

The environment agency(E.A.) has fast tracked a consultation document containing views from various groups on what they feel is now the best way to deal with the problem. Once a decision has been made in about two months it will be forwarded on to Mr Meacher who will have the final say. The E.A. have said their preferred choice is to "Force BNFL to develop practical technology to treat new arising and stored liquid waste containing Tc-99, but will not make any final decisions until it has carefully considered all comments received during this consultation." The H.S.E. which has used it's powers in the past to close down Sellafield, isn't keen to do so as a spokesperson explained "We prefer to have a strategy from BNFL which we can then come to an agreement with, they must then follow." Should they fail there are other steps that can be taken which can be anything from fines to revoking of the licence. When asked if there was any chance of it being shut down H.S.E. said "We have to consider the 10,000 people who are employed at Sellafield and the storage of the highly active waste, added to that the company will lose a lot of money."