Letter: Nuclear source

I MUST correct some points made in your article "Radioactive leak closes Thorp reprocessing plant" (24 May). The material that came out of the pipe (due to accelerated wear which the plant designers anticipated) was collected in a fully protected area. There was no release of radioactivity outside that area and, as a consequence, there was no impact whatsoever on either our workforce or the public.

Details of the work did not come from an anonymous letter from an employee. It appeared on 17 April in the Sellafield Newsletter, a site newsletter which has a wide local and national circulation. The subject had already been covered as well by the local media around Sellafield.

Geoffrey Lean should not imply that his anonymous sources of information are either the only ones or the correct ones.