Top military chiefs have been blasted for keeping the public in the dark over their Sellafield plans – and warned of the consequences of their continued secrecy. The site has a contract to manage and treat historic waste, including weapons grade Plutonium as well as the legacy of nuclear subs, on behalf of the Ministry of Defence. But councillors and industry bosses have expressed “frustration” at the MoD’s apparent unwillingness to discuss details of their future involvement on the site with the wider community. Copeland council’s nuclear portfolio-holder David Moore has written to MoD top brass to give them a shot across the bow over their lack of public engagement. The move comes after MoD representatives were twice due to meet the West Cumbria Sites Stakeholder Group only to cancel twice – the second time at very last minute. However, it is understood that the project team were given very short notice of the invite to the last meeting and had to withdraw because they did not have enough time to prepare.

Times and Star 16th Aug 2019 read more »

A TOP-LEVEL report setting out key nuclear milestones nationwide will be used as template for Sellafield to compile their own version. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) published its Mission Progress Report last month to shows what has been achieved so far and what is still left to do. But the document released on July 4 provides an overview of the picture nationwide whereas the Sellafield version now underway will be site-specific. Copeland Council’s Strategic Nuclear and Energy Board (SNEB) heard the company had “just started working” on their own document which will give a much more localised picture of the process. It is hoped that using the Government department’s report as a “baseline” will help “standardise” the way the data is presented, making progress on clean-up in Cumbria easier to chart. Work on the NDA document started around two years ago, with representatives describing it as an effort to “simplify a very complex story” and to make the information more “accessible”. The report sets out several key milestones with the removal of Magnox fuel and the completion of re-processing work among the important targets, with the NDA due to complete its mission by 2025.

Whitehaven News 16th Aug 2019 read more »

Work has started on a five-year GBP1 billion (USD1.21 billion) programme to address an identified degradation risk in a small proportion of plutonium canisters stored at Sellafield in northwest England and dating from about 50 years ago. The start has been announced with the opening and repackaging of one such can for the first time. Sellafield Ltd says its long-term plan for dealing with this risk is to build a new retreatment facility, which it estimates will be operational in the mid-2020s. This will enhance the repackaging process by removing impurities in the plutonium which contribute to the degrading process. In parallel to this, it has identified a small proportion of canisters that are degrading faster than previously thought. These need to be repacked before the new facility is available.

World Nuclear News 15th Aug 2019 read more »

A former US Navy admiral turned BNFL director has been voted in as chairman of Copeland council’s nuclear board. Members of the authority’s Strategic Nuclear and Energy Board nominated Steven Morgan because of his extensive experience within the industry. Councillor Sam Pollen nominated him because he is politically neutral, and acceptable to Conservative and Labour members of the panel. Coun Morgan, who also serves on the executive and the standards and ethics committee, vowed to help turn around West Cumbria’s economic fortunes as part of his pre-election pledge.

In Cumbria 15th Aug 2019 read more »

A new innovation from Lithuania could be poised to deal with one of the most controversial challenges of nuclear power plants; their nuclear waste. Two Lithuanian laser technology companies, Light Conversion and Ekspla, have developed a laser which could ‘nullify’ nuclear waste. The jointly produced SYLOS is dubbed the most powerful and fastest high-intensity ultra-short pulse laser, which exceeds that of a nuclear plant by several thousand. The principle of SYLOS is that when nuclear waste decomposition is accelerated by a high-intensity laser, the waste decay period can be cut short to seconds, hours, or months, depending on the material, an idea that came from Gérard Mourou, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2018.

Greener Life 5th Aug 2019 read more »

NUCLEAR chiefs in Copeland are split on the creation of controversial storage vaults for radioactive waste amid “moral” concerns. The Government launched its search for a host community before Christmas, prompting the council to come up with a statement that was broadly supportive of the project but also non-committal in terms of the authority’s involvement. But it emerged at a meeting of the borough council’s Strategic Nuclear and Energy Board (SNEB) this week that panel members disagreed over the council’s current position. The board heard that some councillors were “fundamentally” opposed to the very idea of a multi-million-pound underground Geological Disposal Facility (GDF). Speaking at the meeting, councillors Sam Pollen and David Banks both criticised the GDF plans. Mr Pollen said he was not in a position to argue with experts over the facility but stressed that “morality and ethics” should also be considered. He questioned the “rush” to develop a GDF amid concerns over safety and the lack of “retrievability” of the waste once deposited. The councillor, who works at Sellafield, said the waste was now stored “extremely safely” on the Sellafield site which he described as a “big tick in a box for me”.

Carlisle News & Star 14th Aug 2019 read more »

The Guardian has reported that residents in Southern Australia, who face having a nuclear waste storage facility imposed on them, are being forced to sign an excessively restrictive code of conduct if they wish to attend community meetings. This prevents them from taking notes, repeating certain views expressed in the meeting, or trying to take part in the committee discussions. This appears to go well beyond the steps required to maintain an orderly meeting, and serves to suppress democratic accountability. While the last search process in Cumbria, MRWS, didn’t go to such extreme lengths, there were some unnecessary restrictions which obstructed local democracy. Specifically, executive members of the borough councils, and cabinet members of Cumbria County Council, were told that they could not give any public indication of whether they were minded to vote for the process to proceed to the next stage. This ‘predetermination’ rule allowed senior councillors to completely avoid public scrutiny on the matter.

Cumbria Trust 11th Aug 2019 read more »

The 2004 Slough Election was won by the coalition on a vow to revoke planning for general & radioactive waste Mega Incineration plant on the Colnbrook bypass , Now fully operational adjacent to Heathrow terminal 5. Thanks to what can best be described as yes Minister style political skulduggery at the behest of rich powerful corporations, with vested interests in the disposal of radioactive waste. After winning the election the Council were held to ransom with the threat of bankruptcy if they overturned planning permission.

Radiation Free Lakeland 9th Aug 2019 read more »

Letter Professor Neil Hyatt: John Vidal offers an answer to the question in your headline (What should we do with radioactive nuclear waste?, theguardian.com, 1 August) that propagates, unchallenged, the myth that indefinite storage of radioactive wastes is justifiable, perchance that better options than geological disposal may materialise. To do so would be to pass on to the next generation the burden and cost of indefinitely securing, monitoring and repackaging these wastes, which is profoundly unethical and unsustainable.

Guardian 7th Aug 2019 read more »

A CONCERNED environmental group set up camp outside a nuclear laundry yesterday, calling for the county council to put the business under closer scrutiny. Campaigners from Radiation Free Lakeland organised the protest after Energy Coast Laundry recently submitted a planning application that would bring it in line with planning rules, despite running as a nuclear laundry since November 2018. Allerdale Council has launched a consultation into the plans, which closes on August 15. The five-strong group protested for an hour, holding signs that expressed their concern for the local area, and the planet as a whole, pushing Allerdale council to “not simply rubber-stamp the application”, and give the community their chance to vote against the washing of nuclear laundry in their town.

Whitehaven News 7th Aug 2019 read more »

Carlisle News & Star 7th Aug 2019 read more »

An environmental pressure group is to protest outside a nuclear laundry following news of its late planning application. Campaigners from Radiation Free Lakeland will protest outside Energy Coast Laundry’s site on Tuesday, saying they are growing more concerned about how the nuclear industry is affecting the area. The group’s action was prompted by the laundry’s submission of a planning application to bring it in line with planning rules.

In Cumbria 5th Aug 2019 read more »