N-BASE BRIEFING 137 - - - - - - 27th June 1998
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137.1 Plutonium shipment to Dounreay is postponed
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Plans to ship plutonium fuel from Germany to Dounreay have
been postponed. The shipment of 73kg of plutonium and
uranium fuel presently stored in Hanau is the latest in
a series of transports to Dounreay of fuel originally
intended for use in Germany now abandoned fast reactor
programme and associated reprocessing plant. Several
shipments of the fuel have already been made to Dounreay
were it is stored in a building partly paid for by
German utilities.
The Nuclear Cargo Services transport company had applied
for a licence from the Federal Office for Radiation
Protection in Hessen to move the fuel to Bremmenhaven
and then by ship to Scrabster near Dounreay - the route
the last shipment took after transport by air through
Belgium were stopped after Greenpeace protests. This
followed the news that the German Environment Ministry
had stopped the proposed shipment because of concerns
about contamination on flasks used to transport spent
fuel. The ministry said the public would not differentiate
between plutonium and spent fuel. The unirradiated fuel is
scheduled to be processed at Dounreay and them blended into
new MOX fuel.
The proposed shipment was part of an existing contract
Dounreay has already signed, and will therefore be
honoured by the UK Government - which has only stopped
any new contracts for reprocessing spent fuel. However,
as the plant which would treat the Hanau fuel is presently
closed and shipments of new material to the plant is
prohibited by regulators until a full safety review has
been completed, it is unclear whether Dounreay had asked
for permission to bring the fuel into its store.
137.2 High-level risks at Sellafield
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The high-level liquid waste storage tanks at Sellafield pose
an unacceptable risk to the public according to a report
from Dr Gordon Thompson, from the US-based Institute for
Resource and Security Studies carried out for the Nuclear
Free Local Authorities. The report highlights two key
issues - the risk of a major accident affecting the waste
tanks, which contain the waste from 40 years of reprocessing,
and the increased risk caused by the nuclear industry's
culture of secrecy. The highly radioactive liquid waste
is the most dangerous produced by reprocessing and must
be constantly cooled to reduce its heat. It must be stored
for decades before it cools sufficiently to be treated in
any way.
Dr Thompson is highly critical of the regulatory, the Nuclear
Installations Inspectorate, saying their its claims the
risks are minuscule are no more than wishful thinking as
it hasn't carried out the necessary scientific studies or
probabilistic analysis to reach any substantive conclusions.
The waste tanks, some of which leaking coolant, contains
about 2,100 tonnes of caesium-137 - while the Chernobyl
accident which contaminated must of Europe released only
30kg from its core of 70kg. Dr Thompson supported calls
from the NFLA for all reprocessing at Sellafield to stop.
137.3 News In Brief
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Entertaining and exciting
Nearly 3,000 people went to two special open-days at
Dounreay recently which were described by the operators,
UKAEA, as "educational, entertaining and exciting". Visitors
were allowed to visit many parts of the site, including the
fast reactor plants - but the reprocessing plants remained
strictly out-of-bounds.
Uranium shells monitored
Copeland Council in Cumbria has assured the public that the
low levels of contamination around the Ministry of Defence's
Eskmeals firing range are not a hazard to the public. The
range was used until 1995 for testing depleted uranium shells
and the council carried out a survey to assess the level
of contamination.
Legal action in Switzerland
A group of residents who live near the reprocessing plants
at Sellafield and La Hague have started legal action in
Switzerland against the operators of its nuclear industry for
endangering their health by sending spent fuel for reprocessing.
Delaying action
The Russian Atomic Energy Ministry is reported as saying it
will wait until after 1st January 2000 before tackling any
computer problems associated with the so-called 'Millennium
Bug'.
Rail transport concerns in UK
There is increasing pressure on the UK government to take
action over concerns about nuclear transports. While the
French and Germany governments have banned transports of spent
fuel because of contamination on the outside of the transport
flasks, the UK has imposed no new restrictions, despite the
news that over the past three years 53 flasks have had
radiation levels higher than safety limits. This is apparently
due to the flasks 'sweating'. The Dutch environment minister
has banned all transports of spent fuel after it was found
that about 10 per cent of the transport flasks used to take
spent fuel to Sellafield and La Hague had higher than
normal radiation levels.
OSPAR action demanded over La Hague
The States of Jersey parliament in the Channel Islands
has approved a resolution demanding action to reduce
discharges from the La Hague reprocessing plant in Normandy.
The resolution calls on the UK government to tell its
French counterparts of the concern and at the forthcoming
OSPAR Convention ministerial meeting in Portugal urges the
UK to support moves to reduce radioactive discharges to near
background levels.
'Traitor' honoured
Alexander Nikitin, the former Russian navy officer and now
environmental activist. has been awarded the Norwegian Fritt
Ord 'freedom of speech' award. Mr Nikitin was arrested by
the Russian authorities in February 1996 while he was
undertaking research for the Norwegian environmental group
Bellona about the environmental problems of nuclear
submarines around the Kola Peninsula. He has been charged
with treason for collecting and transmitting state secrets.
He was freed on bail in December 1996 but is banned from
leaving Russia
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