The national association of British local authorities which campaigns against both civil and military uses of nuclear power has demanded that the British government pay for an emergency tug to cover the Western Isles after the area narrowly escaped an environmental disaster when a N. Sea oil platform ran aground on the Isle of Lewis last month. There is no locally-based, dedicated emergency towing vessel to cover the Western Isles and when the 17,000 tonne Transocean Winner oil rig ran aground on Lewis it took 18 hours for the nearest tug to be scrambled to the islands – far too late to stop the rig running aground despite having been despatched more than nine hours before the rig towlines broke free. As reported 48 hour ago in Scottish Energy News – the British Government had asked BP five years ago to pay for an emergency tug for the Western Isles. BP refused the government’s request, saying it had no operations in the area and did not use the Minch / Western Isles sea lanes. But the association of Nuclear-Free Local Authorities – whose members include more than 50 councils in Scotland, England and Wales – is most concerned about public safety should a vessel carrying deadly radioactive waste from Dounreay – shipped from Scrabster to Barrow in Furness via the Western Isles sea route – similarly run aground.
Scottish Energy News 26th Oct 2016 read more »
The Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA) and KIMO International (an international local authority organisation working to protect and enhance the marine environment) are astounded to read that the UK Government attempted to encourage the oil company BP to pay for a second Emergency Towing Vessel (ETV) in Scotland, rather than pay for its maintenance itself – a service it has duly cut.
NFLA 26th Oct 2016 read more »
Sellafield Ltd, International Nuclear Services and its subsidiary Pacific Nuclear Transport Limited have successfully completed the sixth shipment in a programme to repatriate highly active waste to Japan from the UK. The programme is called the Vitrified Residue Returns (VRR), a key component of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s strategy to clean up the Sellafield site, fulfil contracts with overseas customers and deliver UK Government policy. The vessel, Pacific Grebe, arrived in Japan on 20 October 2016, having travelled via the Panama Canal. The 132 canisters of waste, contained in five transport flasks, were unloaded at the port of Mutsu-Ogawara, from where they were transported by road to Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd’s storage facility at Rokkasho-Mura. Each transport flask will undergo a series of tests prior to the canisters being removed to be placed in storage.
Sellafield Ltd 24th Oct 2016 read more »