At the local Ramsden Dock (Barrow) Liaison meeting on 28th April, the Committee was told by BNFL that the company was planning to ‘lay-up’ the European Shearwater at Barrow whilst her future is considered. With the fleet’s Pacific Crane and Pacific Swan (owned by Pacific Nuclear Transport Ltd [PNTL] of which BNFL is the major shareholder) already consigned to a Dutch scrapyard, the laying up of a third vessel reduces the nuclear fleet to a total of four ships.
The European Shearwater, wholly owned by BNFL and currently the oldest ship (built 1981) in the BNFL/PNTL nuclear fleet, the Shearwater has been used almost exclusively for the transport of spent nuclear fuel from European reactors to Sellafield for reprocessing. With this trade due to finish in July this year, the ship has one more voyage to complete before that date, collecting one final transport flask of spent fuel from a German reactor.
Transports of spent fuel from Europe by the Shearwater during financial year 2004/05 have fallen considerably short of projections. BNFL’s Near Term Work Plan (NTWP) for Sellafield had projected that in 2004/05 the THORP reprocessing plant would ‘receive 41 flasks from international customers’ – a reference to European spent fuel, as the import of all Japanese fuel was completed some years ago. However the Ramsden Dock Liaison Committee was told that the Shearwater had in fact completed just 6 voyages during the year, carrying a total of 12 flasks from Europe.
Classified by the International Maritime Organisation as INF3 (International Nuclear Fuel code) the Shearwater can theoretically carry vitrified High Level Waste (HLW) and new Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel assemblies. In practice, HLW returns to Japan are more likely to be undertaken by the larger PNTL ships, as is MOX fuel from France to Japan. MOX fuel from Sellafield to Europe will be transported by the most recently acquired BNFL ship Atlantic Osprey (a third-hand roll on-roll off car ferry and the first of the fleet not to be purpose-built.
With the Shearwater laid-up, the remaining nuclear fleet will consist of the armed Pacific Teal (1982) and Pacific Pintail (1987), the Pacific Sandpiper (1985) and the Atlantic Osprey (1986).
Captain Malcolm Miller, BNFL’s Head of International Transport, also told the Committee that having ‘advertised’ the requirement for the construction of one or two new ships in the European Journal in October last year, a shortlist of five contractors had now been drawn up for the work (see CORE Briefing 02/05).
Any final decision as to whether one or two ships would be built was ‘up to the Japanese customers, as they would be paying for th ships’. The ship/s, of around 4500 tonnes and due to be built to INF3 classification by the end of 2007, will be used primarily for the return to Japan of HLW from both Sellafield and the French reprocessing plant, and for the transport of MOX fuel to Japan. BNFL also confirmed that the first HLW return from the UK would be ‘around 2008’.