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FOREIGN NUCLEAR WASTE IN BRITAIN

(This report written by Friends of the Earth and first published in the Safe Energy E-Journal in April 1999 -
see below for contact details. It is reproduced with permission)

Summary Briefing

When former Environment Minister John Gummer rejected Nirex's plans to build the first stage of Britain's underground nuclear waste dump near Sellafield, he also rejected BNFL's plans to keep foreign intermediate-level nuclear wastes (ILW) in Britain.

Plans by BNFL, which owns Sellafield, to keep these wastes in Britain were made dependent on the Nirex dump getting planning permission in Britain's 1995 policy on nuclear waste. This policy means that these wastes must now go back to the countries that have sent their nuclear waste fuel to Sellafield for reprocessing - Japan, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Sweden and the Netherlands.

Because nuclear reprocessing at Sellafield massively increases volumes of nuclear waste, for every flask of nuclear waste fuel that is sent to Britain, 3.5 containers of nuclear waste will now be sent back and one (of low-level nuclear waste) will be kept in Britain.

These figures don't include the nuclear discharges from Sellafield which pollute the environment and pose a threat human health, the contaminated nuclear plant itself, or the stockpile of weapons-useable plutonium at Sellafield.

In evidence to the House of Lords Sub-Committee on Nuclear Waste BNFL said that foreign ILW should be kept in Britain in spite of the failure of the Nirex dump, and added to the stockpile of wastes destined for a future dump. The attached figure shows the volumes of nuclear waste from the THORP reprocessing plant that would be kept and sent back if (1) reprocessing in THORP stops now, (2) reprocessing in THORP continues until all existing contracts are complete, (3) reprocessing in THORP continues and foreign Nirex wastes are kept in Britain.

Greenpeace believes it is irresponsible and morally wrong for other countries to use Britain as the world's nuclear waste dump. BNFL's proposal to change Government policy so the foreign Nirex wastes can be dumped in Britain must be rejected. Instead all nuclear reprocessing and imports of nuclear waste fuel to Sellafield should stop immediately.

FOREIGN NUCLEAR WASTE IN BRITAIN

Introduction

The notorious Sellafield nuclear site, on the North-west coast of Britain has long been the world's nuclear dustbin. Nuclear waste fuel has been sent there from Japan, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Sweden and the Netherlands.

For these foreign countries, sending nuclear waste to Sellafield is an easy way to avoid dealing with it at home. The nuclear industry has long planned to send only one container of reprocessed nuclear waste back for every seven flasks of nuclear waste fuel sent to Britain. However, the industry's plans to keep other foreign nuclear wastes from reprocessing in Britain were rejected by the British Government in 1997, when it refused permission for the first stage of an underground nuclear waste dump in Britain.

The nuclear madness of reprocessing means that volumes of nuclear waste are actually increased once the nuclear waste fuel enters BNFL's THORP plant at Sellafield. Now, for every flask of nuclear waste fuel sent, one container of nuclear waste will be kept in Britain and about 3.5 containers must go back. These figures don't include the nuclear wastes discharged into the sea and air from Sellafield, the contaminated reprocessing plant itself, or the stockpile of separated plutonium at Sellafield (already enough to make about 10,000 nuclear weapons).

This briefing tells the shocking story of the wastes that have nowhere to go. It shows that stopping nuclear reprocessing now, and ending all exports of foreign nuclear waste to Britain, is the only way to stop volumes of nuclear waste spiralling out of control.

Foreign nuclear waste at Sellafield

Table 1 shows the estimated total number of nuclear waste fuel flasks that are contracted to be sent to Britain under existing reprocessing contracts for BNFL's THORP plant at Sellafield.

Table 1

(*) These figures assume an average transport flask size of 3tU per flask, for easy comparison between countries. In practice Dutch flasks are much smaller, containing about 0.6tU, so in practice there have been more transports from the Netherlands than listed in the table.

Sources for these figures are given in the Appendix. The table does not include contracts from Japan and Italy for Sellafield's older Magnox reprocessing plant (a total of about 1000 flasks).

Return-of-wastes?

Since 1976, the British Government has always promised that foreign nuclear wastes from reprocessing at Sellafield would be returned to the country of origin. This was always an empty promise. Reprocessing is an old, polluting industry designed to separate weapons-useable plutonium and un-used uranium from the nuclear waste fuel. The wastes which contaminate and pollute the British countryside and the Irish Sea are not sent back - except in the wind and ocean currents, which carry these wastes to coastlines as far away as Iceland and the Arctic. The contaminated nuclear plants themselves are not sent back. And since 1995, the British Government has promised to keep all foreign "low level" wastes in Britain, and send them to the Drigg nuclear waste dump near Sellafield.

The world's nuclear dustbin

In fact BNFL, which operates Sellafield, has long planned to send only a small volume of "high level" nuclear waste (HLW) from reprocessing back to its customers - much less than it receives from them. Nuclear waste fuel is sent to Sellafield because other governments want to dump it there - not because they want it back. The German Chancellor Schroeder's SPD Party promised to stop reprocessing prior to the 1998 German election in 1998, describing it as "too expensive and too dangerous". But in January 1999, Schroeder decided to delay a reprocessing ban. He said this was because there was not enough space to store nuclear waste fuel where it is produced - at nuclear power stations in Germany.

But if there isn't enough space for the nuclear waste fuel, where is the space for the much larger volumes of waste that will be created if reprocessing continues?

Nuclear crisis - nuclear lies

BNFL's plans to keep foreign "intermediate level" wastes (ILW) in Britain collapsed when planning permission for the first stage of Britain's deep underground nuclear waste dump was refused in March 1997. As there is nowhere to dump these wastes in Britain they must now be returned to BNFL's overseas customers - as a result of a British Government policy agreed in 1995. This means countries like Germany and Japan will have more waste to deal with - not less - if they continue reprocessing. For every two flasks of nuclear waste fuel sent to Britain, about seven containers of high and intermediate level nuclear waste will be sent back.

Intermediate-level wastes remain radioactive for thousands of years and include substances such as plutonium. One speck of plutonium, if inhaled, can cause cancer. Britain's nuclear waste disposal company, Nirex, failed to show that burying these wastes underground near Sellafield would be safe - in fact they were expected to leak back to the surface and contaminate local land, rivers and food.

At the same time, the overseas nuclear companies that send their wastes to Britain, have also failed to find a solution to their wastes at home. In Europe the industry is so anxious to avoid facing up to its responsibilities that Swiss and German nuclear companies have been secretly discussing sending these nuclear wastes to Russia - a country which already has difficulties dealing with its own deadly nuclear legacy. Because the nuclear industry has failed to find a solution to its wastes, nuclear waste is being traded desperately from country to country instead of being managed and contained as responsibly as possible.

Instead of informing its customers that wastes in Britain would be returned, BNFL has been lobbying the British Government to change its policy and keep these foreign wastes in Britain. In its 1996 Annual Report BNFL's Chairman John Guiness even claimed the British government had given it "the go-ahead to proceed immediately" with keeping intermediate level nuclear wastes in Britain - an outright lie. This means that countries such as Germany which send their nuclear waste fuel to Britain may not be prepared for the huge volumes of waste that could now be returned. It also means they keep on sending it - hoping Britain won't send it back.

Table 1 shows the estimated amounts of nuclear waste that would be returned if all existing overseas contracts with BNFL's THORP reprocessing plant are fulfilled. Sources for these figures are given in the Appendix.

Table 1

Japan also sends nuclear waste fuel to Sellafield's ageing Magnox reprocessing plant, and so has Italy in the past. These transports are not included in the table, although 1054tU of this Magnox fuel will also require waste to be returned.

Sellafield's biggest customers - Japan, Germany and Switzerland - have not built the stores needed to take the thousands of waste containers that will be returned if reprocessing continues. There is no known disposal route for these reprocessing wastes, and plans to bury them in Britain have been a failure.

Managing the legacy

Greenpeace believes it is irresponsible and morally wrong for other countries to use Britain as the world's nuclear waste dump. BNFL should not base its business on dumping other countries' waste in Britain. Sending nuclear waste fuel to Britain, and then sending even greater volumes back, is also irresponsible.

Instead, all imports of nuclear waste fuel to Britain must stop immediately. Nuclear waste fuel already in Britain should not be reprocessed - this only increases volumes of nuclear waste, pollutes the environment and adds to the dangerous stockpile of weapons-useable plutonium at Sellafield. Existing foreign wastes in Britain should go back to where they came from - but on a time-scale which has been agreed and planned between both countries, so that dangerous nuclear wastes are not left with no place to go. All existing wastes should be placed in managed, monitored stores where the waste can be retrieved if anything goes wrong, and not dumped into the environment. No more nuclear wastes should be created.

Table 2 shows the amounts of nuclear waste that would be returned from THORP if all reprocessing stops now and no more overseas nuclear waste fuel is imported into Britain. Sources for these figures are given in the Appendix.

Table 2

In addition, if reprocessing stopped, nuclear waste fuel already at Sellafield that hasn't yet been reprocessed would have to be sent back. It is against British Government policy to keep these wastes permanently in Britain.

What difference would stopping reprocessing make?

Table 3 shows the difference between completing all reprocessing contracts and stopping now, including all the transports that would take place from today (but not counting all the unnecessary transports to Britain that have already happened). It assumes existing British Government policy on the return of wastes is implemented. Transports of separated weapons-useable plutonium back to BNFL's customers have not been included.

The official number of expected deaths from cancers as a result of Sellafield's nuclear discharges is also included for each country. These cancers are expected over many generations into the far future. The estimates are highly uncertain as the behaviour of nuclear discharges in the environment, ecosystems and the human body are not well understood. Nevertheless, they give a rough estimate of the relative damage to human health caused by the two options.

For all countries except Sweden (which has already reprocessed all its nuclear waste fuel contracted at Sellafield) a far bigger volume of waste will go back if reprocessing continues than if it stops now. If reprocessing continues, more waste will also build up at Sellafield and more discharges and cancers will be expected to occur. Each country's stockpile of dangerous weapons' useable plutonium at Sellafield will also increase.

For Germany, an estimated 280 containers of nuclear waste containers would be returned if reprocessing stops now, but about 1960 containers of nuclear waste - seven times as many - would be returned if reprocessing continues until all the contracts are complete. Including the transports still to come to Britain, a total of 2380 transports would be needed to complete the contracts - more than eight times as many as if reprocessing stopped now. Nearly sixteen times as many fatal cancers, from Sellafield's routine discharges alone, are expected if Germany continues reprocessing instead of stopping now.

Japan could nearly halve the number of nuclear waste containers returned from THORP if it stopped reprocessing now, and cause less than a quarter of the number of expected cancer deaths.

Even if all these transports back to BNFL's foreign customers occur, the number of containers of foreign nuclear waste from THORP kept in Britain will increase nearly five-fold if reprocessing continues. This is because the British Government has agreed to keep all low-level foreign nuclear wastes in Britain, and because many of the older contracts with THORP allow all the foreign wastes to stay.

These calculations are conservative - they assume no new overseas contracts are signed with Sellafield.

The volumes in Table 3 are shown graphically in the attached figures.

Conclusions

The world's nuclear waste crisis is spiralling out of control - and

Sellafield is its dustbin. If reprocessing in THORP at Sellafield

continues it will cause about

The nuclear industry is rapidly escalating its own nuclear waste crisis by nuclear reprocessing, as well as increasing the threat of nuclear weapons proliferation and polluting the environment. All exports of nuclear waste fuel, and all reprocessing must stop immediately.

For further information contact:

Greenpeace, Canonbury Villas, London, N1 2PN

Tel: 0171-865-8100, Fax: 0171-865-8200, email: info@uk.greenpeace.org

APPENDIX - data sources and assumptions

Of THORP's baseload (first ten year) contracts, 3188tU is overseas fuel with return of waste clauses (the rest is UK fuel or has no return of waste clause - meaning that these wastes will stay in Britain). Overseas baseload contracts are with Germany (969tU), Japan (2673tU), Switzerland (422tU), Spain (145tU), Italy(143tU), Sweden (140tU), Netherlands(53tU). Assuming contracts with no return of waste are distributed proportionally between the customers, this means each country has approximately the following quantities of fuel contracted with return-of waste clauses: Germany (680tU), Japan (1874tU), Switzerland (296tU), Spain (102tU), Italy(100tU), Sweden (98tU), Netherlands (37tU).

Germany also has 950tU in post-baseload contracts for THORP, all of which has return of waste clauses. Japan and Italy together have 1074tU contracted for Sellafield's Magnox reprocessing plant (B205) with return of waste clauses (and 1455tU without).

When conditioned, wastes arising from reprocessing one tU in THORP are:

0.071m3 HLW; 2.34m3 ILW; 2.52 m3 LLW (4.93m3 in total).

BNFL has estimated that, for the first ten years of THORP, returning only HLW (including "substitution" of a small amount of HLW for ILW and LLW wastes ) would involve some 150 radioactive waste transportations, but returning all overseas wastes would take some 5,000 transportations. These transports, taking into account the different packaging arrangements for each waste type, occur in the ratio 3% for HLW, 24% for LLW and 73% for ILW. This implies that returning HLW and ILW from THORP's baseload contracts, but keeping LLW in Britain (consistent with UK Government policy) would also involve about 3,800 transports, mainly of ILW. These transports can be divided between contract countries in proportion to their contracts with return-of-waste clauses. Another 1130 transports must then be added to Germany as a result of post-baseload contracts.

This means that for each tonne of uranium (tU) reprocessed, 1.568 containers of other nuclear wastes are produced (0.047 containers of HLW, 1.15 containers of ILW and 0. 376 containers of LLW). One flask sent (3tU) means 3.5 containers back (of HLW and ILW) and one kept in Britain (of LLW).

As of 15 December 1998, about 1835tU had been reprocessed in THORP (which was operating behind schedule). If it had operated successfully, by the end of 1998 THORP should have reprocessed fuel from the following countries: UK (1057tU); Japan (847tU); Germany (153tU); Switzerland (217tU). As well as failing to meet its scheduled quantities, THORP is known to have reprocessed all the Swedish fuel at an early stage, although this was not scheduled to be reprocessed until 2002. If we assume the rest of the reprocessed fuel was completed in proportion to the original intended throughputs, we have the following estimates of quantities per overseas country: Japan (631tU), Germany (114tU), Switzerland (161tU), Sweden (140tU). Again we also need to assume that contracts with no requirement for waste return are distributed in proportion to the totals for each country. This gives totals reprocessed for which waste returns are required as: Japan (443tU), Germany (80tU), Switzerland (113tU), Sweden (98tU). These estimates are somewhat uncertain as accurate figures are not publicly available - the estimate in the press for German fuel reprocessed to date has varied between 56tU and 150tU.

Volumes delivered but not reprocessed at Sellafield are estimated from customer countries figures where available and the records of shipment deliveries held by Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment (CORE).

Each spent fuel cask sent to THORP contains on average approximately 3tU. Each Magnox flask contains about 2.5tU.