The state-owned operator of the UK’s largest nuclear waste site has pleaded guilty to criminal charges brought by the industry regulator over IT security breaches. Lawyers acting for Sellafield told a London court on Thursday that they accepted cyber security was “not sufficiently adhered to for a period”, although they insisted there had not been a successful cyber attack and that its systems were now secure.
The 6 sq km site holds waste from the UK’s current active fleet of nuclear power plants, as well as from closed plants, including the former fleet of Magnox reactors. It holds the world’s largest stockpile of plutonium, a byproduct of nuclear power production, and is described by the ONR as “one of the most complex and hazardous nuclear sites in the world”.