The top director at England’s largest nuclear waste dump is to leave, it has emerged.
According to the Guardian, Mark Neate, the safety and security director at Sellafield is to leave later this year. He is said to report directly to the site’s interim chief executive Euan Hutton.
The Cumbria-based nuclear waste and decommissioning site is the world’s largest store of plutonium. But a year-long investigation from the newspaper found a “toxic” working culture as well as multiple safety and cybersecurity failings.
Energy secretary Claire Coutinho said the reports were “deeply concerning”. She has now demanded a “full explanation” from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA).
The NDA is a state-owned body that ultimately has control over the Sellafield site.
NDA chief executive David Peattie last month said there had been “necessary changes to the leadership, governance, and risk management of cyber”. He said the responsibility for its cyber function had now been moved.
A new cybersecurity head is set to take charge later this month, says the Guardian. Peattie says this would ensure “sustained focus and leadership on this matter”.
Sellafield said Neate had responsibility for cybersecurity operation until January last year. This is when control was shifted to its chief information officer.
The Guardian says the site did not say if Neate’s departure was related to cybersecurity and safety failings, or if he opted to leave. The paper says it was however linked to the failings.
Sellafield says the director would be in post for “several more months,” reports the publication. It said he was leaving after a “career dedicated to ensuring the safety and security of the Sellafield site and its workforce”.
Neate told the Guardian: “I took stock at the end of the summer break and ultimately decided that 2024 was the right time for me to move on.”
Neate joined Sellafield in 2012 and has held numerous roles since, includig director of security and resillience. Previously he worked in the military, including spending time as a strategist during the Iraq war and working with the US army.
In a 2022 interview, he said he was proud of Sellafield’s security record. He said: “If we sneeze here the whole industry gets a cold. I do see it as fun.”
According to annual accounts for the year ending March 2023, Sellafield as “more work to do” to reduce safety incidents. Accounts, the Guardian reports, showed an annual operating cost of £2.5bn, a £170m increase to the public purse.
During the last financial year, the company reportedly pleaded guilty to a prosecution brought by the Office for Nuclear Regulation under health and safety regulations after an employee was injured falling from a scaffold ladder while carrying out repair work. It was fined £400,000 and ordered to pay £29,210 in costs as well as a surcharge of £190.
The GMB union has urged the government and nuclear authorities to take action over safety concerns. The firm, which employs 11,000 people, was also placed in special measures.
A Sellafield spokesman said: “Mark Neate has made the decision to leave Sellafield following a decade of dedicated service working as environment, safety and security director.
“Mark has brought significant value to Sellafield over the past decade, including the role that he played in running our response to the Covid crisis, and we are sad to see him go.
“He made the decision in autumn last year to leave the company, and will continue in his role to ensure a smooth transition to his successor.”
