Yahoo Finance Sellafield cyber attacks ‘no surprise’, Union warns secretary of state
The recent cyber attacks and information data breaches targeted at the Sellafield nuclear site were “no surprise”, the head of one of the UK’s largest unions has told the government.
In a letter addressed to Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero Claire Coutinho, GMB’s national secretary Andy Prendergast said workers had been raising concerns related to information leaks and cyber hacking at the Cumbrian plant for years.
These, he continued, included “a lack of training and competence among staff, a culture of fear and intimidation and inadequate safety procedures”.
The letter references a 2018 report which found that there were 40 per cent fewer safety inspectors at the site than there were in 2010 and the number of safety incidents had increased by 25 per cent during the same period.
Mr Prendergast said the issues primarily stem from staff turnover as well as the “age and demographics” of the workforce and called on the government, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and Sellafield to “urgently” address the issues.
Earlier this month, The Guardian first reported that Sellafield has been repeatedly hacked into by cyber groups closely linked to Russia and China using malware.
The site has the largest store of plutonium on the planet and serves as a nuclear waste dump and experts believe the cost of decommissioning it has risen from £110bn.
The letter comes as the site’s chief executive, Euan Hutton, yesterday told the BBC there was no evidence of Sellafield’s IT networks having been targeted by groups linked to foreign governments.
Despite repeated calls from the nuclear industry, the sector still awaits an official government roadmap to bring Small Module Reactors (SMEs) online.
The outline for this plan has been delayed from its due publication date of this month to January next year.
