British media speculated that relevant Chinese and Russian cyber organizations "hacked" into the UK's Sellafield nuclear waste reprocessing plant, which was later clarified by the British government. However, the real problem facing the "most dangerous nuclear facility in Europe" is not the alleged "hacking", but the nuclear leak.

On December 5, the British "Guardian" quoted official documents revealing that cracks in the repository responsible for storing toxic radioactive waste at the Sellafield nuclear facility in 2019 have caused "potentially serious consequences." The leak could continue until 2050 and could contaminate groundwater if the situation continues to worsen, the document said. According to anonymous experts, the facts and potential risks of the leak have been "firmly hidden" by the authorities.

The six-square-kilometre Sellafield nuclear facility in northwest England is currently one of the largest in Europe and one of the most dangerous in the world. During the Cold War, the former Sellafield nuclear Power plant was responsible for producing plutonium for nuclear weapons, but also received nuclear waste from Italy, Sweden and other countries, and now has the world's largest stockpile of plutonium.

The Guardian reported that the decades-old nuclear facility, Europe's largest, had suffered a series of safety problems, including asbestos and fire hazards. But even more worrying are cracks in the outer layers of the concrete and asphalt storage facility that holds the toxic radioactive waste that has been leaking for at least three years.

According to a June report by the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ORR), the Sellafield facility reported leaks in 2019, and over the next two years, the leakage significantly worsened, with 2.3 to 2.5 cubic meters of radioactive "liquid" now leaking every day. The leak is estimated to have caused "potentially serious consequences" and could continue until 2050, potentially contaminating groundwater if the situation worsens.

The report noted that inspectors had said it was impossible to calculate how many cracks had formed in the storage silos, so guesses and modeling were being done based on leaks at the facility to figure out the risk to the public and workers at the site. Workers at the facility have been told to stay at home.

Sellafield is understood to have argued that the leak posed no "additional risk" to staff and the public. But scientists are increasingly concerned about the overall size and rate of leakage. The health consequences of exposure to nuclear radiation depend on the dose and range from nausea and vomiting to cardiovascular disease and cancer. In most cases, extremely high exposures are fatal.

Sources say basic safety requirements at the facility are getting weaker and long-term dangers are being ignored or left unchecked. A senior employee at the facility told the Guardian: "They can't even deal with a fire or asbestos on site, let alone a broken nuclear containment material."

A document sent to Sellafield board members in November 2022, seen by the Guardian, shows widespread concerns about deteriorating safety across the plant. The document warns that a range of shortcomings in nuclear safety and asbestos and fire standards pose a "cumulative risk" to nuclear facilities. If radioactive waste is released into the atmosphere, or cause an explosion, air crash and other major catastrophic accidents.

A source familiar with the risk report on the Sellafield nuclear facility said there were more than 100 safety issues at the site.

Diplomatic cables seen by the Guardian also show that leaks at the Sellafield nuclear facility have raised concerns among US officials. The operation of Sellafield has already strained diplomatic relations with Ireland and Norway.

Norwegian officials fear that an accident at the facility could send radioactive particles flying over Norwegian territory with the wind, with devastating consequences for Norwegian food production and wildlife. Concerned about the environmental impact of Sellafield, the Irish government took the matter to a United Nations court in 2006 to try to take action against the site.

A member of a committee of British scientists responsible for monitoring Sellafield and other nuclear sites has warned the Guardian that the site needs closer attention and that the facts about the leak and potential risks have been "firmly hidden" by officials.

The scientist, who asked not to be named, said: "At the moment it's hard to know if transparency has gone out the window because no one is brave enough to say, 'We just don't know how dangerous this is'... In a context of terror and a lack of proper documentation, the stakes are extremely high."

As early as 2001, the European Union warned in a report that the Sellafield nuclear facility contains far more radioactive material than the pre-1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant, so the facility could have a worse nuclear accident than Chernobyl. The Chernobyl disaster occurred in 1986, exposing about 5 million people in Europe to radiation.

It is worth mentioning that the warning was issued a day ago (4), the Guardian quoted sources claiming that the Sellafield nuclear facility has been "hacked" by cyber organizations with close ties to Russia and China. According to the report, the computer system protection of nuclear facilities is loose, as early as 2015, experts found that the system was implanted with malicious programs, "foreign hackers are likely to have obtained the highest level of confidential information," but the high-level deliberately concealed.

However, the Guardian did not provide evidence in its report that the so-called "foreign hackers" were linked to Chinese and Russian cyber organizations. The British government also clarified on the same day that there is "no record or evidence" of a successful attack on the network of nuclear facilities by "state actors."