Aboriginal Australians are challenging proposals to transport nuclear waste from northern Scotland to a sacred site. Wallerberdina, 280 miles north of Adelaide, has been identified as a potential location for Australia’s first nuclear waste dump as part of a deal that returns spent fuel processed at a nuclear reactor in Dounreay, Caithness, to its country of origin. The Dounreay Waste Substitution Policy, agreed in 2012, sees waste from Australia, Belgium, Germany and Italy processed at the Scottish facility to make it safe for storage after being returned to its country of origin. Campaigners have complained that the intended South Australian destination forms part of an Aboriginal heritage site rich in burial mounds, fossilised bones and stone tools. Gary Cushway, a dual Australian/British citizen, who lives in Glasgow, has written to the first minister asking for the first shipment to be stalled “until a satisfactory final destination is finalised by the Australian government”. He told The Times: “Radioactive waste is a problem we need to deal with but shifting the problem on to remote indigenous communities isn’t fixing the problem. “It is just creating more problems for indigenous communities that have been mistreated for centuries already.” In a letter sent last Thursday, Mr Cushway said he believed the Scottish government had “an opportunity to take the lead in mitigating the mistakes of the past that the UK government has made, not least the testing of nuclear weapons on indigenous homelands in South Australia and the forced removal of indigenous people that took place to facilitate this”. Speaking on behalf of residents from the Adnyamathanha community who live on land adjacent to Wallerberdina, he added: “The Australian government have no final destination for this waste and at present, the plan is to temporarily store it in an as yet unfinalised national radioactive waste management facility for ‘up to 20 years’.

Times 26th Sept 2017 read more »

ABORIGINES in South Australia are fighting a plan to ship nuclear waste from Scotland amid fears it will be dumped on land regarded as culturally and spiritually sacred. Wallerberdina, around 280 miles north of Adelaide, has been earmarked as a possible location for Australia’s first nuclear waste dump despite claims that it is a priceless heritage site rich in archaeological treasures including burial mounds, fossilised bones and stone tools.

Herald 25th Sept 2017 read more »

Dounreay the massive and most complex nuclear clean-up in Europe. DOUNREAY was the centre of Britain’s research into fast-reactor technology in the 1960s, with the first of its reactors going live in 1958. In 1962, its fast reactor was the first in the world to provide electricity to a national grid and it operated until 1977. A damning safety audit by the Health and Safety Executive and Sepa in 1998 made 143 recommendations for improvements and a decommissioning programme was announced.

Herald 25th Sept 2017 read more »

CORE’s acceptance speech for the Nuclear Free Futures Award.

NFFA 15th Sept 2017 read more »

Work is underway to retrieve the last remaining radioactive fuel elements that have been stuck for decades inside the iconic Dounreay Fast Reactor (DFR). The experimental dome-shaped nuclear reactor once led the world in fast breeder technology and after it closed in 1977 most of the core fuel was removed. But work to remove elements from the breeder zone came to a halt when some were found to be swollen and jammed. Almost 1,000 – around two-thirds of the total – were left in place. Decommissioning the 58-year-old reactor is one of the most technically challenging projects in the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) estate and removing the breeder elements has been a top priority. Now, after many years of designing and testing remotely-operated equipment, a decommissioning team has started to recover the elements. It is expected to take around three years to remove them all, after which work can begin on the final dismantling of the landmark reactor.

Dounreay 12th Sept 2017 read more »

NUCLEAR plant Sellafield was yesterday branded a potential “coup for terrorists” as police who protect it warned against budget cuts. Safety fears were initially raised last year after an investigation into security at Britain’s main nuclear decommissioning site in Cumbria. Now Cumbria’s Police and Crime Commissioner Peter McCall has warned his constabulary must not lose a penny in any forthcoming shake-up of national police funding. “In my opinion the number of officers in the county is at an irreducible limit. “We’ve all seen the tragic terrorism events across the country this year. Cumbria is not immune to that. “We’ve got a big strategic target here in Sellafield and that would be a great coup for terrorists.”

Express 13th Sept 2017 read more »

Work has begun on the “challenging” task of removing radioactive fuel elements stuck inside the most famous of Dounreay’s reactors. Closed since 1977, the Dounreay Fast Reactor is known for its dome-shaped exterior. Almost 1,000 fuel elements have been in the reactor for years after the work to remove them was halted because they were swollen and jammed in. New technology has now been developed to make it possible to remove them. It could take three years to complete the job at the nuclear power site near Thurso in Caithness. Once all the elements have been removed work can begin on dismantling the reactor.

BBC 12th Sept 2017 read more »

Almost a third of Sellafield nuclear workers are to stage a 24-hour strike in a dispute over pay. The GMB union said its 3,000 members would walk out on 27 September in protest at an imposed pay rise of 1.5%. Sellafield has a workforce of 10,000. Unite, which is currently balloting its 2,000 members at the plant, has described the pay offer as “paltry”. Sellafield Ltd said it was a publically funded organisation and had to deliver value for money to the taxpayer.

BBC 12th Sept 2017 read more »