N-Base Briefing 469


N-Base Briefing 469
1st October 2005
ISSN 1478-4661

Enforcement order on safety

A week-long audit of Dounreay by inspectors from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency has found 28 breaches of safety rules. The agency has served a formal enforcement order on the UKAEA, which operates the site for the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. The order relates to the sites atmospheric discharge systems, maintenance procedures, record-keeping and discharges of liquid wastes. The enforcement order lists nine measures the UKAEA must undertake if it is to retain is discharge authorisations.

Cementation leak

The Dounreay Cementation Plant has been closed after 58 gallons of high- active liquid reprocessing waste leaked onto the floor of the plant. The cementation plant treats the high-active raffinate reprocessing wastes which are cemented in 500-litre steel drums. The closure will have a major effect on the decommissioning programme if the plant is shut for any length of time. The alarm was raised early on Tuesday morning when staff realised the liquid waste and cement were not feeding into an empty tank. The spillage was within a shielded cell, with four-foot thick walls, that will make the recovery and clean-up technically challenging.

Boat enters no-go zone

The Grimsby-registered long-liner Apollo had its catch seized and destroyed after it was seen fishing inside the exclusion zone around Dounreay. The vessel was seen in August by police at Dounreay who informed the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. The Apollo was ordered into Scrabster where its catch was monitored and then destroyed. The two-kilometre exclusion zone around Dounreay was imposed in 1997 because of the radioactive contamination on the seabed.

Another particle

Another radioactive particle was been found and removed from the Sandside beach near Dounreay.

New rectors

The well-established campaign to get new nuclear reactors built in the UK received possibly it biggest public boost to date this week when the prime minister Tony Blair gave his most vocal support to date. Speaking at the Labour Party conference about global warming Mr Blair said: "...the G8 agreement must be made to work so we develop together the technology that allows prosperous nations to adapt and emerging ones to grow sustainably and that means an assessment of all options, including civil nuclear power."

This is understood to be the first time Mr Blair has spoken about nuclear power in a major speech. Energy minister Malcolm Wicks also speaking at the conference said it would be difficult for the UK to meet carbon emission targets without nuclear power and the government was right in "keeping options open" for building new reactors.

BNFL to sell BNG

British Nuclear Fuels has decided to sell its main operating business – the British Nuclear Group (BNG) that employs 15,00 people in operating the Sellafield complex for the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority as well as the ageing Magnox reactors and other sites. The decision has to be approved by the UK Government that holds all the shares in BNFL. With a decision already taken to sell BNFL's American subsidiary, Westinghouse, the decision to sell-off BNG could mean that BNFL will possibly cease to exist within a year, leaving the new owners of BNG as operators of Sellafield on behalf of the Nuclear Decommisiioning Authority.

NDA waste ideas

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has said there are good reasons for intermediate-level nuclear waste already at Dounreay to be stored there – and all other similar wastes stored at Sellafield. On its website the NDA says it will wait for the Committee on Radioactive Active Waste Management (CoRWM)to report before it can "finalise our preferred approach to ILW interim storage". However the NDA says there could be "significant cost savings" through having either one ILW store for the UK or "a small number of regional ILW stores". The authority continues: "...we believe there is an argument that ILW generated at Dounreay should continue to be stored on the site and that all other ILW arising in the UK should be stored at Sellafield".

Footdee radiation

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has said that the most likely source of the radiation found on the Aberdeen beach at Footdee is the company Scotoil. The company cleans radon and uranium from inside oil industry pipes and discharges the wastes from a pipeline close to where the radioactive material was found in August.

Decommissioning consent

The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate has given permission to Magnox Electric for the decommissioning of the Chapelcross nuclear power station. Details at www.hse.gsi.gov.uk/nuclear/nuc24.pdf

Radiation conference

The 21st Low Level Radiation and Health Conference is to be held at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, on 25-28 August 2006. Details from Carmel Mothersill at mothers@mcmaster.ca

Stolen material

Ukrainian authorities have recovered 14 pieces of nuclear fuel believed to have been stolen from Chernobyl.

'Sent us your waste'

Former Australian prime minister Bob Hawke has said the country has the safest locations to store nuclear waste from around the world. This would bring a 'massive boost' for the Australian economy, Mr Hawke said. Five years ago the company Pangea, with British Nuclear Fuels and Enterra Holdings as the major shareholders, suggested a similar proposal but dropped the idea after widespread opposition. At present the federal government is having problems finding a site for the country's own nuclear waste – let alone waste from other countries.

High prices

Nuclear generator British Energy is among the companies benefiting from the present high electricity prices. BE announced profits of GBP64 million for the first-quarter of this year.

Czech waste

About 31lbs of highly-enriched uranium has been taken from a store in the Czech Republic by plane to the Dimitrovgrad complex in Russia. The uranium had been stored at the KV-2 Sparrow reactor at the Technical University in Prague.