N-Base Briefing 185

N-BASE BRIEFING 185 - 20th June 1999

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185.1 Reports condemn Sellafield's wildlife contamination

A number of official reports have expressed concern over the spread of radioactive contamination from Sellafield by wildlife - and called for improved monitoring at all nuclear sites. The scare started last year when it was realised that pigeons which ad been nesting in contaminated areas of various buildings of the Sellafield site were regularly visiting a house in nearby Seascale where the occupants fed hundreds of the birds. Monitoring discovered that the garden soil, and even the garden gnomes were all contaminated by material carried by the birds and all the top soil was classified as low-level waste and removed to the Drigg dump.

Regulators immediately ordered improved monitoring around sites and the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food has issued a public warning not to handle, kill or eat feral pigeons within 10 miles of the Sellafield reprocessing complex after high levels of caesium-137 and caesium-134 were found in the birds. Hundreds of pigeons were killed. Analysis of the pigeons has shown that anyone eating the breasts of about six pigeons would receive the permitted annual radiation dose for the public.

The recent reports have been published by the Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment (COMARE), the Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee (RWMAC), Copeland Borough Council, the Environment Agency, the National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB) and the Department of Health.

COMARE and RWMAC comment that it is "unacceptable that the Sellafield site has been managed in a way that pigeons became contaminated to the extent that property away from Sellafield also became significantly contaminated." The incident was "worrying" and should not have been allowed to happen.

The reports warn that contamination could be being spread by other wildlife which has rabbits, insects and birds. Research is needed at all nuclear sites and more work needs to be done to prevent wildlife gaining access to the sites.

185.2 OSPAR meeting to consider nuclear commitments

The annual meeting of the OSPAR marine pollution convention for the North Sea and North Atlantic takes places this week in Hull starting tomorrow (Monday). The main focus of attention concerning nuclear issues will involve how the commitments made at last year's minister's meeting in Sintra, Portugal, to "work towards achieving further substantial reductions or elimination of discharges" by the year 2000 and a reduction of radioactivity in the marine environment to background levels by 2020.

UK Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has committed the government to achieving the targets and is due to publish a plan, prepared in conjunction with the nuclear industry, designed to implement the OSPAR targets. A number of states and non-governmental organisations will be pressing the UK and arguing that the Sintra proposal involves stronger action than the UK is proposing. The French government has told Cogema, which operates the La Hague reprocessing plant, to prepare a "zero liquid discharge" option for the plant.

185.3 News in Brief

Barseback closure confirmed

The Swedish Supreme Administrative Court has upheld the government decision to close the Barseback 1 nuclear reactor after an appeal by the operators Sydkraft. It is now likely the reactor will close in November, marking the start to the decommissioning of all power reactors in the country.

La Hague reduces reprocessing

The operators of the La Hague plant, Cogema, have announced that reprocessing there will be reduced by 25 per cent over the next three years because of reduced demand from overseas customers.

MOX consultations confirmed

The government has confirmed it will hold yet another round of public consultation on whether or not the controversial plutonium MOX fuel plant at Sellafield should be allowed to start operations. The government said it believed the plant should be allowed to begin work but there should first be consultation on the economic viability of the Sellafield MOX plant (SMP). Initial testing of the plant involving uranium commissioning is to be allowed and the consultation process will end on 23rd July. The documents published by the government for the consultation will be available on the internet at www.environment/detr.gov.uk/ras/index.htm

American gene research

Research conducted in the UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas has suggested a genetic trait may be responsible for some Gulf War veterans suffering from Gulf War Syndrome. The study suggests that a gene which produces particular enzymes may protect some veterans from the effects of harmful chemicals they were exposed to during the war.

FoE calls for mast restrictions

Friends of the Earth have urged tougher regulations to protect the public from microwave radiation from mobile phone masts in evidence to the House of Commons science and technology select committee. FoE says the Maastricht Treaty states citizens should be protected from the "actual or potentially harmful long-term effects of exposure to electromagnetic fields" and that the precautionary principle should be applied to the siting of mast. The National Radiological Protection Board should revises its public exposure guidelines to minimise any health risks.

THORP restrictions

Regulators have restricted work at the THORP reprocessing plant to spent fuel from the UK's advanced gas-cooled reactors until a solution has been found to the problems of working with the LWR spent fuel. Work on LWR fuel has resulted in the blocking of pipework inside the plant causing two lengthy shut-downs.

Petten to convert

The European Union's High-Flux Reactor at Petten in the Netherlands is making major moves towards converting from weapons-grade highly-enriched uranium (HEU) to low-enriched uranium. A study by AEA Technology has shown how the reactor can convert and a proposal is likely later this year. Conversion work will take an estimated three years, but Petten's commitment to low-enriched fuel would meet American regulations and allow for the temporary supply of enough fresh HEU fuel to keep the plant operating. Spent HEU fuel would also be allowed back into the USA for storage and disposal. Dounreay had been hoping to supply HEU to Petten and other research reactors, but American and environmental group opposition, and a long series of problems with the plant at Dounreay resulted in the work being lost and the closure of the HEU reprocessing section.

MOX shipment moves closer

The shipment of plutonium MOX fuel from Europe to Japan has moved a step closer with the departure of the two ships to be used for the shipment from the docks where they have been undergoing work for sea trials. The Pacific Teal and Pacific Pintail have undergone major refits and have been armed with heavy canons in the Barrow-in-Furness docks. The fuel for the shipment was understood to be ready for transport from the Dessel FBFC fabrication plant in Belgium to La Hague in Normandy but is now understood to have been taken off the transport trucks.

'Not the answer' - 'Yes it might be'

The Nuclear Free Local Authorities have restated their opposition to nuclear energy as an answer to global climate change - in response to a report from the Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineers which argued for the "nuclear option" to be kept open as a way of fighting climate change. The RS/RAE report supports the idea that new nuclear power stations might be built in the UK to help meet national carbon dioxide reduction targets.