N-Base Briefing 443


N-Base Briefing 443
19th February 2005

ISSN 1478-4661

Particles prosecution ?

The UKAEA face the prospect of a legal prosecution for the contamination caused by the discharge of hundreds of thousands of radioactive particles into the Pentland Firth in the 1960s. There is also the possbility that the particles have continued to leak into the environment.

The particles have been found on the seabed off Dounreay and found on the nearby Sandside beach. The possibility of a prosecution follows the preparation of a report by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency into the particles issue, the contamination of land and the encroachment of rabbits into the ground above the site's low level waste dumps.

Waste shipment

The tenth shipment of vitrified highly-active reprocessing waste has left Cherbourg in France for Japan on board the Pacific Sandpiper.

Missing plutonium

The annual Materials Unaccounted For (MUF) figures show that British Nuclear Fuels at Sellafield cannot account for 29.6kg of plutonium in 2003/04. Dounreay couldn't account for 0.234kg of plutonium and 0.772kg of highly-enriched uranium.

BE losses continue

Nuclear generator British Energy lost GBP87 million in the three months ending on 31st December compared to GBP10m in the same period last year. The figures are for the first three months since a major company restructuring, part of the rescue plan to avoid bankruptcy.