N-BASE BRIEFING 170 - 6th March 1999
170.1 Dounreay News
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Privatisation reversed
In a major sift in policy designed to meet regulators
concerns over management and safety at Dounreay management of
the site is to be put back into the hands of the UK Atomic
Energy Authority staff instead of private consultants. The
previous site director Mr John Baxter presided over radical
changes in the site's management with increasing numbers
of private companies brought into manage and operate vital
parts of the complex - and a corresponding drop in UKAEA
staff levels and expertise. This eventually caused
considerable concerns among regulatory who called on UKAEA
to take back control of the site. Now private consultants
WS Atkins are being side-lined as a new regime of UKAEA staff
takes over. In change will be Mr Peter Welsh, the present
assistant site director who is to take over from Dr Roy
Nelson when he retires as director next month. In all
up to 100 new UKAEA staff are being recruited in a major
reversal of the wide-scale redundancies over the
past decade.
More hotspots
Another six radioactive hotspots have been found on the
foreshore below the nuclear complex, bringing the total
found so far this year to six - equal to last year's total.
Dounreay said recent stormy weather was probably
responsible for the new finds.
170.2 Waste and plutonium shipments
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The British Nuclear Fuels vessel Pacific Swan left France
on 25th February for Japan carrying 40 canisters with
15 tonnes of vitrified high-level waste from reprocessing
at La Hague. It has been confirmed that the vessel's
six-week voyage with go via the Panama Canal which will
raise wide-spread opposition in the Caribbean and
Pacific. This is the fourth transport of high-level waste
from Europe to Japan.
Later this year the first shipment of plutonium MOX fuel
is scheduled from Europe to Japan and major works are
being carried out in Barrow on two other BNFL vessels, the
Pacific Teal and Pacific Pintail, to prepare them for
this work. The changes include the arming of the vessels
with light weapons. The reprocessing industry hopes this
extra security, plus both ships travelling together,
will be enough to satisfy American concerns over
security. A shipment of plutonium fuel from France to
Japan in 1992 was escorted by an armed Japanese
coastguard vessel.
170.3 News in Brief
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Planning for caesium
The UK Atomic Energy Authority has applied to the Highland
Region for planning permission to build a new plant next
to the closed Dounreay Fast Reactor to help remove the
radioactive liquid sodium from the reactor's cooling
systems
UK aid for Lepse waste
The UK Government has promised GBP3 million towards the
cost of dealing with the serious waste and spent fuel
problems of Russia's northern nuclear fleet based
around Murmansk. Much of the UK's money will go
towards the cost of casks for the 600 plus spent fuel rods
which have been dumped on the 65-year-old vessel Lepse
for about 20 years. In addition to the Lepse there
are about 100 decommissioned nuclear submarines and numerous
other waste problems in the region. It is estimated that
there will soon be around 320 reactors dumped in the region
in addition to an estimated 75,000 spent fuel rods. British
Nuclear Fuels is involved in designing interim storage
for spent fuel, funded by Norway, Sweden and the European
Union and in dealing with radioactive leaks at the Andreyev
Bay navy base. AEA Technology are partners in another
study of the Lespe waste problem.
Stop mobile phone mast
Highland Council has asked mobile phone company Orange
to stop work erecting a microwave mast near a children's
play area and houses at Naver in Thurso. Although the
council granted permission for the project there has been
widespread concern among local residents about the work
because of fears about the health effects of microwave
radiation.
Nuclear not gas...
The G7 industrial countries are still insisting that the
Ukraine build new nuclear reactors to replace the two
reactors at Chernobyl although the country's president
has stressed it would prefer to build new gas-powered
stations instead.
No plutonium risks ?
A study of 14,000 people who worked at Sellafield between
the late 1940s and 1975 and were exposed to plutonium
has apparently concluded there were no increased risks
of leukaemia and other cancers, although there were
'excesses' of ill-defined cancers and breast cancer.
The study was conducted by the London School of Hygiene
and Tropical Medicine. A spokeswoman for Cumbrians Opposed
to a Radioactive Environment (CORE) said the study was
selected and it was "absolute rubbish" to suggest radiation
did not cause cancer, pointing out that the nuclear industry
had paid GBP3.7 million to former workers in compensation
for health problems.
New reactor for British Energy ?
AmerGen, the joint venture company between partners British
Energy and Peco Energy, is negotiating to buy its second
reactor in the USA. AmerGen is awaiting regulatory approval
for its purchase of number one reactor at Three Mile Island and
is now expected to buy Vermont Yankee, a 540 megawatt boiling
water reactor in Vermont.
NFLA bulletin
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