A CAMPAIGN group has claimed that radioactive waste has been transported “in secret” from the port of Scrabster, near Thurso, to Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. Highlands Against Nuclear Transport (Hant) said the operation was carried out before the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) had given any information that could be open to public scrutiny, or before the UK Government had given a commitment about stationing an emergency towing vessel (ETV) at Stornoway to cover the west coast. Concern mounted after their counterparts in Cumbria said a 29-year-old nuclear fuel carrier MV Oceanic Pintail arrived in Barrow-in-Furness on March 14 with a cargo of “exotic fuels” – radioactive waste that originated in Dounreay. Yesterday the vessel was still moored near Barrow. Hant chairman Tor Justad told The National: “Onc e again a secret and dangerous transport of highly radioactive cargoes is being carried out without any public consultation or scrutiny.” A spokeswoman for the NDA said there was an “ongoing programme to defuel Dounreay” that started in 2001 and would continue until the 2020s. “With regard to the latest transports, the NDA published its proposals in a series of option papers dating from 2012 and carried out extensive engagement with local stakeholders,” she said. “Our priority at all times is to maintain the security of the fuel and ensure the public and our personnel are protected from harm. For those reasons, we are unable to provide information that could compromise our ongoing programme to defuel the site.”
The National 19th March 2016 read more »
A coalition of five non-governmental organizations warned today that a shipment of weapons-grade plutonium scheduled to depart the port of the Japanese Tokai nuclear station in Ibaraki prefecture this coming weekend highlights the failure, but also the proliferation risks, of the current Japanese nuclear policy. A cargo of 331kg of plutonium will be loaded on to the Pacific Egret, an armed British nuclear transport ship, prior to departure under armed escort to the United States. It will be the largest shipment of separated plutonium since 1.8 tons of plutonium was delivered to Japan by controversial Akatsuki-maru in 1992. The two month voyage to the Joint Base Charleston-Weapons Station will then see the plutonium dumped at the Department of Energy Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina. The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration, which is responsible for the shipment, has identified that storage in Japan poses a security risk justifying its removal. The organizations, Citizen Nuclear Information Center (Japan); Green Action (Japan); Savannah River Site Watch (U.S.); CORE (England), and Greenpeace, said in a statement they condemn the shipment as a dangerous distraction from the major problem in Japan which is its overall nuclear energy policy, where over 9 tons of plutonium remains stockpiled and there are plans to produce many tons more during the coming decade. The representatives of the five organizations have worked together over the past quarter century against Japan`s plutonium and nuclear fuel cycle program.
Pan Orient News 18th March 2016 read more »
Stockpile of weapons-grade plutonium big enough to make FIFTY nuclear bombs to be shipped to US from Japan after it was loaned for research.
Daily Mail 18th March 2016 read more »
Toxic waste is being transported through North Ayrshire towns on trains to the horror of CND campaigners. The revelations emerged just after the five-year anniversary of the Fukishima disaster – the largest nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl accident almost 30 years ago. Now anti-nuclear campaigners and one Holyrood candidate believe the risk of transporting the hazardous material through towns has the potential for disaster. Two to three flasks of the waste are being transported through Irvine, Kilwinning and Stevenston between Hunterston and Sellafield weekly. Veronika Tudhope, Scottish Green Party candidate for the West of Scotland, became aware of the practice when she moved to live close to one of the affected lines.
Daily Record 18th March 2016 read more »