N-BASE BRIEFING 123 - - - - - - 29th March 1998
123.1 News in Brief
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New Dounreay reprocessing controversy
The news that Dounreay is hoping for a reprocessing contract
for its new D2670 plant from the Netherlands' Energy Research
Centre at Petten has heightened the controversy over whether
the site has regulatory permission to operator the plant.
Dounreay announced last year that it wanted to open a new
third small-scale reprocessing line in D2670. They have one
contract for TRIGA fuel from an ICI reactor at Billingham in
north-east England and a hoping to attract similar reprocessing
work from up to 19 countries around the world. While Dounreay
operators, the UKAEA, claim it does have regulatory approval
within the overall approval for reprocessing at the site, both
the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency and the Nuclear
Installations Inspectorate insist permission has not been
given for reprocessing work in D2670 and no work can take
place until an application has been approved.
Flask fail safety tests
A flask used to transport highly-radioactive spent fuel has
dramatically failed safety tests and resulted in the suspension
of some nuclear transports. The NTL11 flask which can take
three tonnes of spent fuel has been used for 130 transports
between Sellafield and nuclear power plants in Switzerland
and Germany. Sellafield operators BNFL has now suspended all
transports involving this type of flask. The flasks were last
tested 20 years ago when new tests were ordered early this
year by French licensing authorities. When the flask was
dropped from 9 metres onto a hard surface eight bolts
which secured the lid were sheared. The tests were repeated
at Winfrith in March with the same results.
Nuclear flasks derailed
A train carrying two empty irradiated spent fuel flasks from
Sellafield to the Heysham reactor was derailed on 24th March
in an accident between the reactor and the station at
Morecambe. The flask were being transported by the
freight company EWS.
OSPAR Convention ratified
The OSPAR Convention for the Protection of the North East
Atlantic has now been ratified by all parties and officially
entered into force on 25th March 1998. An OSPAR ministerial
conference is planned for Lisbon on 20-24th July 1998 and
discussions on a number of important issues to be agreed
there are already under negotiation in meetings of civil
servants.. Among these issues are proposals to reduce
radioactive discharges from the Sellafield, Dounreay and La
Hague reprocessing plants to natural background levels.
The OSPAR Convention commits countries to reducing and
eliminating radioactive discharges into the marine environment.
Participating parties are: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France,
Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands,
Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and
the European Commission.
HEU agreement for FRM-2
Russia and Germany has reached agreement for the supply of
highly-enriched uranium fuel for the FRM-2 reactor near
Munich. Russia has agreed to supply up to 1,200 kilograms of
weapons-grade HEU which will be fabricated into new fuel
for FRM-2 either in France of the UK - by AEA Technology
at Dounreay.
Scrap from nuclear submarines
There is renewed concern that radioactive metal from
decommissioned nuclear submarines could be sold for scrap
and used for consumer goods. Those considering the idea
include Babcock International which runs the Rosyth dockyard
where the redundant vessels are kept. The proposal is
possible because of new EU regulations on radioactive waste
which are due to come into force in 2000 and which would
allow metal with low levels of contamination to be re-used.
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