N-Base Briefing 444


N-Base Briefing 444
26th February 2005

ISSN 1478-4661

Drigg waste plan approved

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency is recommending that the UKAEA be given permission to transport low level waste from Dounreay to the Drigg repository near Sellafield in north west England.

While Friends of the Earth (Scotland) said the transport of the waste was a 'necessary evil' Caithness Against Nuclear Dumping said Dounreay should deal with its own waste management and not export the problem. Dounreay's low level waste pits have been full for several years and waste has been stored in super-compacted steel drums in temporary buildings.

However the transport of the waste to Drigg has been forced through by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate.

Particles conference....

A conference to discuss the problem of radioactive 'hotspot' particles from Dounreay is to be held in the Highlands in August. Called 'Managing Historic Hot Particles Liabilities in the Marine environment' the conference is jointly sponsored by The Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA), the British Nuclear Energy Society (BNES), the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the UKAEA. It will be held in Nairn on 30-31 August. Details from june.love@ukaea.org.uk

..and three more particles...

Three more radioactive particles have been found on the Sandside beach near Dounreay - bringing the total to 54. The new finds come as the Scottish Environment Protection Agency rejected another call from the landowner, Mr Geoffrey Minter, to close the beach to public access because of health concerns.

...as questions are asked

The former leader of the Conservative Party, Iain Duncan Smith, has raised the issue of radioactive contamination of the Sandside beach on the House of Commons. He has tabled a series of question for environment secretary Margaret Beckett.

Filter work starts

Work starts this week on fitting a final filter on Dounreay's liquid waste discharge system. Dounreay is the only nuclear site in Scotland without such a filter which is design to capture any solid material before it is released into the sea. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency only issued an instruction for the filter to be fitted at the end of last year.

New group

Work in underway to create a new Dounreay Stakeholders Group to replace the local liaison committee once the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority takes over control of the site on 1st April. The new group will have much wider representation than the present committee, including a representative of Caithness Against Nuclear Dumping. The UKAEA, other nuclear bodies and regulators will not be members of the new group.

Contaminated

Three workers at Sellafield received radiation contamination recently in the Thorp reprocessing plant.

Plutonium briefing

The Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology has produced a four page briefing on 'Managing the UK Plutonium Stockpile'. It is available at www.parliament.uk/post/home.htm

Iodine tablets

The Irish Department of Health is considering distributing iodine tablets to every house in the country. Tablets were first distributed three years ago and need to be replaced.