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Sellafield staff locked in during Cumbria shootings

Staff at Sellafield were locked in to the site yesterday following a series of shootings in Cumbria.

Staff were advised to stay at home, while those already on site were locked in from 11am, when news broke that a man had shot and killed people in Whitehaven, Cumbria.

Derrick Bird proceeded to shoot 23 people in the surrounding region before killing himself in a wood, near Boot. He had killed 12 people and injured 11, three of whom are critically ill in hospital.

Sellafield is the largest employer in the region and employs 10,000 staff on the 700-acre site.

It closed its gates at 11am and reopened at 2pm, when news of Bird’s death had been announced.

The company made the decision to close, after it was advised that people in the area stay within their homes. Roads in the area had also been closed by Cumbria police.

A spokesman at Sellafield told FM World that staff were kept updated throughout the three hours with a series of internal communication memos.

Cumbria police kept in close contact with Sellafield’s on-site Civil Nuclear Constabulary.

A note on Sellafield’s website at 2pm yesterday read: ‘Cumbria Constabulary has now reopened the main roads around Sellafield and the site gates have reopened.

‘Afternoon shift personnel have been requested to attend site as normal, recognising there may be some delays. Morning shift personnel can be released except for those (minimum manning personnel) required to stay back and complete a handover.

‘Day personnel should not attempt to leave early to prevent chaos on the roads.’

Mitie and Dalkia provide FM services at Sellafield. Mitie bought Dalkia's FM arm, Dalkia Technical Facilities Management last year. Certain aspects of the site's FM provision are managed seperately, for instance the site gates are manned by the Civil Nuclear Constabulary.

in 2008, Sellafield was taken over by a US-led consortium which includes Amec, as part of an initial five-year £6.5bn contract.

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