N-Base Briefing 486


N-Base Briefing 486
18th February 2006
ISSN 1478-4661

Lorry leaked radiation

A high dose rate of radiation leaked from a container being transported by AEA Technology on a lorry from a hospital to Sellafield, Leeds Crown Court was told this week. A 'plug' had been left off a 2.5 ton container holding a piece of cancer treatment equipment. As a result a beam of high dose radiation was emitted vertically downwards from the base of the package. The leak occurred all through the three-hour 130 miles journey. The Health and Safety Executive said it was "pure good fortune" no-one had been directly exposed to the radiation beam.

Tories have 'open mind'

The Conservative shadow trade and industry secretary, Alan Duncan, said this week the party had "no fixed opinion about nuclear energy". This has been interpreted a change from the party's traditionally strong support for nuclear energy.

Sandside finds

Another radioactive 'hotspot' particle was found on the Sandside beach this week – the 59th find on the beach since monitoring started about nine years ago. This week the owner of the beach, Mr Geoffrey Minter, also withdrew access permission for the monitoring staff employed by the UKAEA. Mr Minter, who has stopped access for monitoring several times in the past, said the UKAEA was not serious about solving the problem. Instead the monitoring was only a "sampling exercise" that finds only a small percentage of the contamination coming ashore.

Dutch nuclear possibilities

The Netherlands environment minister Pieter van Geel said this week that nuclear energy was a "very serious option" for the country if it was to meet its climate change emission targets.

Dump concerns

Members of the Presbytery of the Caithness Church of Scotland have expressed concerns about the UKAEA's plans for a new low level waste facility at Dounreay. It was agreed more information was needed about the plans and members said they expected there to be full public consultation so the worries of local residents could be heard.

Gosforth denials

Reports in the local media that the waste agency Nirex still favoured a deep waste repository in West Cumbria at Gosforth near Sellafield were strongly denied this week. The Whitehaven News quoted Nirex chief executive Chris Murray that he favoured a deep repository for the UK's waste and also quoted a Nirex spokesman who said sites where the local community was in agreement with a repository would be given extra weighting during the site selection process. In response Nirex issued a strongly worded denial, saying they had learnt from their past mistakes, had no "hidden agenda" and were fully committed to the work of the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management.

Sellafield warning

The European Commission has issued another warning to Sellafield. The commission said this week that nuclear material accounting standards at the complex must be improved and brought up to Euratom standards. British Nuclear Group has four months to improve its new accounting and administration systems.