Nuclear Transports

Nuclear Transport

23rd July 2017

Braving the rain in Carlisle today campaigners went to bear witness to the Nuclear Industry’s whitewashing of its seemingly never ending transports of mountains of spent fuel and nuclear materials. The day is a great draw for thousands of railway enthusiasts who are in love with the diesel engines. Many are unaware of the dangerous cargo of nuclear fuel, even those who live in Carlisle. Created in 1994 by British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (now the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority) to take over British Rail’s handling of nuclear material. DRS has since diversified into other freight operations including food. This diversification serves to take the focus away from the main purpose which is the transport of nuclear materials (the only publicly owned railway we are allowed to have is that bearing nuclear freight!)

Radiation Free Lakeland 22nd July 2017 read more »

Waste Transport

20th July 2017

The next DRS [Direct Rail Services] open day event will talk place at Carlisle on Saturday July 22nd. This year activists from the Close Capenhurst Campaign & Radiation Free Lakeland will be joining together to leaflet at the event. This is the 4th year running that DRS will have been leafleted about the radioactive waste flasks which they transport to Sellafield. The leafleting session will take place between 10.00. & 15.00hrs outside the KingmoorDepot, Carlisle.

Radiation Free Lakeland 19th July 2017 read more »

Waste Transport

14th July 2017

Transport is a critical component in the supply and use of nuclear and other radioactive material for beneficial uses. Ensuring the security of these materials during transport is a critical element in keeping them secure throughout their lifecycle. Current approaches to transport security for normal commercial shipments of radioactive material and Category III and below nuclear material are largely human-based (observation, communication, etc.), with security technologies contributing to some degree. Emerging technologies have the potential to significantly strengthen current transport security approaches. Opportunities to strengthen transport security include building on technologies that are being increasingly adopted in other areas of freight security: vehicle tracking, communications and anti-theft technologies are being applied in ever widening ways to vehicles and conveyances of all types. Challenges include developing technologies that can function in harsh operating environments (shock, vibration, heat, cold, humidity, etc.), areas where normally widespread services are not available (mobile phone coverage), and the fact that many technologies are evolving at an extremely rapid pace (rapid obsolescence). The CRP provides opportunities for research institutes, commercial transport security providers and systems vendors, shippers and carriers to collaboratively advance the use of technologies in improving security in operationally efficient ways.

IAEA 12th July 2017 read more »

Waste Transport

13th July 2017

Tourism Secretary Fiona Hyslop yesterday urged any organisation whose operations might interrupt traffic flow on the popular North Coast 500 route to consult widely. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has obtained a road closure order affecting the A836 between Reay and Scrabster on the Caithness coast that will take effect between next Monday and June next year.

Press & Journal 13th July 2017 read more »

Dounreay

10th July 2017

A hugely-popular tourist driving route faces disruption while a stretch is used to transport nuclear waste. With the UK terror threat remaining “severe,” police have been granted the power to close a nine-mile stretch of the lucrative North Coast 500 route for public safety reasons. The move is to allow shipments to be transported along the A836 from the Dounreay atomic plant in Caithness to the port of Scrabster – then on to Sellafield in Cumbria.

Press & Journal 10th July 2017 read more »

Plutonium Transports

7th July 2017

Two ships carrying mixed oxide (MOX) fuel yesterday departed from the French port of Cherbourg en route to Japan. It is the sixth such shipment of MOX fuel from Europe to Japan.

World Nuclear News 6th July 2017 read more »

Plutonium Transports

6th July 2017

A cargo of reprocessed nuclear fuel containing highly radioactive plutonium left the French port of Cherbourg for Japan under heavy security on Wednesday as demonstrators protested against the transport.

Phys.org 5th July 2017 read more »

The plutonium MOX fuel shipment that will depart France to the Takahama unit 4 reactor today highlights both the risks and failure of Japan’s nuclear fuel cycle policy, Greenpeace warned today. Plutonium MOX fuel use reduces the safety margins of reactors and increases the severity of a nuclear accident. Currently Japan, has stockpiled over 10 tons of plutonium domestically, with more than 37 tons stored in France and the UK. The shipment to Takahama contains as much as 736kg – as little as 5kg is sufficient for one nuclear weapon.

Greenpeace Japan 5th July 2017 read more »

Plutonium Transports

5th July 2017

The Areva group has sent this nuclear fuel from La Hague to the port of Cherbourg, where it will be loaded on boats to a Japanese power plant. A handful of environmental activists voiced dissatisfaction and denounced the supposed dangerousness of such transport with, in issue, plutonium is present in the mox.

FranceTV 5th July 2017 read more »

Plutonium Transports

3rd July 2017

The Pacific Heron and sister ship Pacific Egret, armed with naval canon and carrying security ‘swat- squads’ sailed unladen from their home port of Barrow-in-Furness early this morning en-route to Cherbourg where MOX (mixed oxide) plutonium fuel assemblies will be loaded for onward delivery to Japan. The 16 fuel assemblies, fabricated in French company Areva’s Melox Plant and containing some 500kg of nuclear weapons useable plutonium are destined for Kansai Electric’s Takahama 4 reactor in the south west of Japan. Preparation for the two-month voyage have been evident over the last few days at Barrow’s Ramsden Dock nuclear terminal with the loading of stores, the arrival of the security swat-squads provided by the Civil Nuclear Constabulary’s Strategic Escort Group (aka Sea-Plods), the loading of ammunition and the sweeping of the ships’ hulls by divers. Commenting on the preparations, CORE’s spokesman Martin Forwood said today that the need for this level of armed security brings home the reality of the very real and significant dangers of transporting plutonium – in this case enough for around one hundred nuclear weapons – and demolishes the industry’s complacent and short-sighted claim that such shipments pose no risks. “At a time of heightened and increasingly sophisticated action by terrorists we re-iterate our condemnation of the trans-world shipment of such dangerous material by sea. This voyage not only foists needless risks on the marine environment and communities along the route, but also raises additional and significant concerns in Japan on the use of MOX fuel in the Takahama reactor (as also used in the fated Fukushima reactors) which has only just re-started after the overturning of a court injunction by local activists which kept the reactor off-line for inadequate safety standards”

CORE 2nd July 2017 read more »

Plutonium Transports

30th June 2017

[Machine Translation] Next week, MOX fuel should be loaded at Cherbourg on the Pacific Egret or Pacific Heron to Japan and the Takahama nuclear power plant. The MOX contains 10% plutonium and 90% uranium. This journey through the seas of the world of dangerous fissile materials induces tensions and risks throughout the journey. The problem of safe havens in case of damage or fire is still unresolved. The ability of Pacific Nuclear Transport Ltd.’s small ships to withstand North Korean cyclones, tsunamis and missiles is not demonstrated. But it is the business as usual that continues for Areva and for a French nuclear industry without guard crazy besides being penniless. Perpetuating small business as in the good old days before Fukushima means avoiding questioning the reprocessing plant for irradiated fuel and plutonium mining in La Hague, which the Nuclear Safety Authority and the unions say Since 2 years that it is in a worrying state in terms of safety. Areva’s transports always give the marines of the whole world the opportunity of exercises for the most underwater. Our first advice is therefore aimed at fishermen and especially trawlers. They must deviate widely from the convoy to eliminate any risk of hook with a submarine, hypothesis more and more plausible to explain the sinking of the Bugaled Breizh in January 2004, a few days before the departure of Cherbourg of a cargo of waste Nuclear activities to Japan.

Robin Des Bois 29th June 2017 read more »

(From earlier in the month) With today’s restart of the Takahama 3 reactor in Fukui Prefecture, Greenpeace revealed that the nuclear operator Kansai Electric and the French nuclear company AREVA are planning a secret plutonium fuel shipment from France to the Takahama plant. Plutonium fuel (MOX) reduces the safety of the reactor, increasing both the risk of a severe accident and its radiological consequences. The shipment is scheduled to depart Cherbourg France on 7 July.

Greenpeace Japan 6th June 2017 read more »