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Haven't we got enough already - why is more nuclear waste heading our way?
Posted by jossc on 1 October 2007.
Despite the close attentions of coastguard ships and helicopters, not to mention an anti-terrorist task force, 30 Greenpeace activists in inflatable boats intercepted a British Nuclear Group ship this morning as it headed towards Sweden to pick up a cargo of nuclear waste. The intense level of protection around the Atlantic Osprey meant that its arrival was only delayed by an hour or so before docking at the nuclear facility at Studsvik, where it will pick up 4.8 tonnes of spent nuclear fuel, due for reprocessing at Sellafield's MAGNOX plant.
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British Nuclear Group court case - transcript and sentence
Publication Date:
5 Apr 2007Body:
On 16th October 2006, British Nuclear Group, the operator of the massive Sellafield nuclear complex, was in the Crown Court in Carlisle to face sentencing over an accident that led to the shut-down of the THORP spent nuclear fuel reprocessing plant.
The case, brought by the Health and Safety Executive (North West) centred on the events that led up to 83,000 litres of highly radioactive dissolved spent fuel leaking into the area beneath a tank in the reprocessing facility.
As the case revealed, the leak - which went undetected for eight months - was the result of a succession of operator and technical failures going back to the late 1990s.
The judge sentenced British Nuclear Group to pay £500,000 in fines and costs of almost £70,000. It is the largest ever fine imposed on Bitish Nuclear Group (this was not its first prosecution).
The £2.5bn plant, which was closed in April 2005 for repairs, is not expected to re-open until January 2007 - if then. Estimates of the financial losses - due to the closure - to the government's Nuclear Decommissioned Authority, which owns THORP, stand at between £60m-£400m.
The case, brought by the Health and Safety Executive (North West) centred on the events that led up to 83,000 litres of highly radioactive dissolved spent fuel leaking into the area beneath a tank in the reprocessing facility.
As the case revealed, the leak - which went undetected for eight months - was the result of a succession of operator and technical failures going back to the late 1990s.
The judge sentenced British Nuclear Group to pay £500,000 in fines and costs of almost £70,000. It is the largest ever fine imposed on Bitish Nuclear Group (this was not its first prosecution).
The £2.5bn plant, which was closed in April 2005 for repairs, is not expected to re-open until January 2007 - if then. Estimates of the financial losses - due to the closure - to the government's Nuclear Decommissioned Authority, which owns THORP, stand at between £60m-£400m.
PDF 2:
Interim Review: Leak of radioactive liquor in the feed clarification cell at BNG THORP Sellafield
Publication Date:
20 Apr 2006Body:
Review of the management and technical aspects of the failure and its implications for the future of THORP
Summary
Published by nuclear engineers John Large & Associates, this review examines the failure of pipework in the feed clarification cell of the thermal oxide reprocessing plant (THORP) at Sellafield that resulted in closure of the plant in April 2005. Operation of THORP is contracted to the British Nuclear Group (BNG) and owned by the government agency the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA).
Future radiation doses from waste dumping to exceed 2005 limits
Posted by bex on 4 November 2005.
Estimates of radiation doses to the public in the future, from the release of radioactive materials from the Drigg nuclear dump site, could reach up to 30 times than the legal maximum permissible now! Moreover, Drigg, the UK's main low-level waste dump is likely to be destroyed by coastal erosion in 500 years.
These are the conclusions of an Environment Agency review of British Nuclear Group's applications for contimued disposal of radioactive waste at the Drigg low-level waste dump in Cumbria. The Agency says BNG has failed to make an adequate case for continued waste disposals, which could create an undue burden for future generations.
Download Greenpeace's recent submission to the Environment Agency regarding Drigg here (Adobe Acrobat PDF format).