N-Base Briefing 178

N-BASE BRIEFING 178 - 3rd May 1999

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Dounreay News

Regulators question new contract

A new contract which would have seen private contractors take over responsibility for maintaining the Prototype Fast Reactor at Dounreay has been put on hold following concerns by the regulators, the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate. English firm Alsthom Automation from Leicester, until recently part of the GEC group, had been awarded the contract and was due to start work at the beginning of April from AEA Technology whose three-year maintenance contract was due to end. However the NII inspectors have questioned the competency of Alsthom to carry out the work and queried the training of the new contractor's staff. Until the issues have been resolved AEA Technology are continuing the work on a month-to-month basis.

Vulcan reactor news

The pressurised water reactor at the HMS Vulcan nuclear submarine shore base adjacent to Dounreay is scheduled to have received its new fuel and gone live in 2001 - a year later than originally scheduled. The reactor is used as a test plant for submarine reactors. It is presently being de-fuelled as part of the GBP150 million refurbishment programme to prepare for testing the reactors for the new Astute class vessels as well as the existing Trafalgar and Swiftsure classes. Refuelling of the reactor is due to start later this year.

News in Brief

UK waste policy

The UK Government is expected to give its response to the recent House of Lords select committee report on nuclear waste policy this month. The announcement is possible during the week beginning 17th May and a Green Paper will be published later this year.

OSPAR meeting

The OSPAR marine pollution convention's programmes and measures committee is meeting in Luxembourg this week and among the topics of discussion will be the implementation of the radioactive discharge policy agreed at the ministerial meeting in Portugal last summer.

Rokkasho delays

Japan Nuclear Fuels has postponed the scheduled opening date for the Rokkasho reprocessing plant for a second time. The new date has now been given as July 2005 instead of January 2003. Construction work started in April 1993 and the company blames construction delays for the postponement.

Plutonium contamination

The recent meeting of the Dounreay Local Liaison Committee was told that part of the foreshore below a dis-used sea-water facility was contaminated with caesium, plutonium and americium. Contaminated water had been leaking from the facility, for the seawater used to cool the original fast reactor at the site, at the rate of about a litre a month, possibly since it was last used in 1977. Steps are underway now to empty the facility.

PWR pull out

The German environment minister Juergen Trittin has announced an end to funding for the European pressurised water reactor joint German-French design project.