Just 18 months before the infamous fire ripped through Windscale’s Pile No 1 on 10th October 1957, a little publicised and largely forgotten major accident in the neighbouring Pile No 2 saw workers fight desperately for over a week to save the reactor from total loss.
NuGen’s investment turmoil sparks pylon delay for Moorside new-build.
Plans to build the £2.8Bn power transmission line connecting NuGen’s delayed Moorside project have been put on hold by National Grid so that it can align its plans with those of developer NuGen which have already been put on-hold.
Plans to bring the shutters down on THORP.
At a West Cumbria stakeholder working group meeting last week (18th April) Sellafield Ltd outlined plans for the long-term storage of an estimated 5500 tonnes of spent fuel from the UK’s Advanced Gas Cooled Reactor fleet in THORP’s Receipt & Storage pond. The pond, measuring 73m x 23m x 8m deep, became operational in 1988 and the first … [Continue Reading]
France’s Engie, joint founder of NuGen, leaves embattled Toshiba holding the unwanted Moorside baby.
Almost seven years ago the NuGeneration (NuGen) consortium was officially established. Then consisting of France’s Engie (formerly GDF Suez), Spain’s Iberdrola and UK’s Scottish & Southern Electricity (SSE), the consortium’s plan was to make a start on its Moorside triple AP1000 reactor site in 2014.
Copeland MP Jamie Reed quits Westminster to re-join the Sellafield ship he abandoned in 2005.
Head-hunted by Sellafield in 2000 to mastermind the Union’s ‘Save Our Sellafield’ campaign following the damaging MOX falsification scandal in 1999, Jamie Reid was elected in 2005 as the Member of Parliament for the Copeland constituency in West Cumbria in which the Sellafield plant is situated . During his time at Westminster he served variously … [Continue Reading]
Sellafield MP Jamie Reed’s call for speedy Government decision on new MOX plant falls on deaf ears at DECC.
The much trailed debate on the 140 tonnes of UK-owned plutonium stockpiled at Sellafield took place today at Westminster today 14th June 2016. In the event the word ‘debate’ was a complete misnomer as the half-hour session consisted of a 20 minute impassioned plea from the Copeland MP and a 10 minute response from MP … [Continue Reading]
Barrow ships’ controversial plutonium cargo from Japan unloaded at the US Port of Charleston. Several weeks of an extended voyage from Japan unaccounted for.
After a 10-week voyage from Japan, Barrow-based ships Pacific Egret and Pacific Heron docked in Charleston’s naval yards in the early hours of 4th June 2016 – at least 3 weeks later than projected.
New-Build reactor delays put Sellafield’s plutonium decision on the back burner.
As well as dominating the news headlines, the delays to EDF’s Hinkley Point C are also creating waves over 300 miles to the north at Sellafield and the fate of its stockpile of 140 tonnes of separated plutonium recovered from decades of spent fuel reprocessing. A Government decision on how this stockpile is to be dealt … [Continue Reading]
Regulatory red lights warn of impending delay to NuGen’s Moorside project.
The traffic light warning system used by the nuclear Regulators (ONR and Environment Agency) in their latest quarterly assessment update on the Westinghouse AP1000 reactors proposed for Moorside will make uncomfortable reading for both Westinghouse and NuGen. Covering the period November 2015 to January 2016, the update signals inevitable delays to securing approval for the … [Continue Reading]
Barrow ships with plutonium cargo head for the US under glare of publcity.
The cat and mouse surveillance of the two Barrow-based nuclear ships Pacific Heron and Pacific Egret entered its penultimate stage yesterday when a consignment of plutonium was loaded onto the Pacific Egret in the tiny nuclear port of Tokai Mura on 22nd March. Dashing officialdom’s best efforts to keep the loading – and indeed the … [Continue Reading]