N-BASE BRIEFING 142 - - - - - - 30th July 1998
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142.1 News in Brief
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'Hotspots' may come from waste shaft
The Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee (RWMAC)
and the UK Atomic energy Authority have now both said that
controversial waste shaft at Dounreay could be the source
of at least some of the 200 plus radioactive 'hotspot'
particles which have been found on the coast around the
site. In the past UKAEA had said the waste shaft was not
thought to be the source, but RWMAC in its annual report
says the authority has now changed its mind as a result
of survey work around the site which has progressively
ruled out other possibilities. The other likely source
of the particles is thought to be sandbanks on the seabed
off Dounreay where particles from liquid discharges had
lodged over the years and are washed ashore by currents
and tides.
MPs criticise secrecy - but support Georgian waste importation
The House of Commons trade and industry select committee
has supported the government's decision to import nuclear
waste from Georgia - but the MPs were strongly critical of
the way the decision had been taken and announced, the
secrecy of the nuclear industry, and the fact a highly-critical
report on safety at Dounreay was not published for a year
and not shown to ministers. The committee suggested that
law should be changed to allow similar reports to be published
in future. Under existing law a Health and Safety Executive
report can only be published with the approval of the company
or body concerned - and in this case Dounreay operators the
UK Atomic Energy Authority stopped the report being published
because of "commercial confidentiality", i.e. its publication
would undermine its commercial credibility. The House of
Commons should have been given a more accurate picture of
the state of safety at Dounreay, the committee agreed, and
Dounreay was shrouded in "too great a culture of secrecy".
Prosecution after leak contaminates workers
The Atomic weapons factory at Aldermaston is to be prosecuted
after two workers were contaminated with plutonium following
a leak during the cleaning of a pipe. Radiation levels in
the plant were so high after the leak in December last year
that it was two months before safety inspectors could carry
out an investigation. The complex is operated by Hunting-Brae
for AEA plc.
Deep disposal
The Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee (RWMAC)
has suggested that deep underground disposal of intermediate
and high level radioactive waste, including spent fuel, was
the "only tenable option" open to the government.
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