The Oceanic Pintail, the only ship owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) docked in Barrow’s Ramsden Dock nuclear terminal early this morning and unloaded a cargo of ‘exotic’ nuclear materials. These comprise unirradiated plutonium/ highly enriched uranium fuels which were loaded on board at the Caithness Port of Scrabster. From Barrow the consignment was … [Continue Reading]
NuGen’s Offshore Drilling application for Moorside. Marine life to take pot-luck [No 01/16]
In early December last year NuGen submitted its application to the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) for a licence to undertake offshore geotechnical investigations within West Cumbria’s inshore waters. The application is in support of its plans to build three AP1000 reactors at Moorside. The focus of the investigation will be the location for the sub-seabed … [Continue Reading]
THORP flunks major foreign fuel reprocessing target [No 06/15]
The latest in the catalogue of chronic failures to be notched up by Sellafield’s Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (THORP) was confirmed by Sellafield this week when it admitted to local stakeholders that the projected completion date for overseas fuel reprocessing of November 2016 could no longer be met. Instead, the outstanding overseas contracts would be … [Continue Reading]
A French MOX plant at Sellafield? [No 05/15]
Since the Government confirmed in December 2011 that its preferred management option for the UK’s plutonium stockpile was to convert the ‘asset of zero value’ into Mixed Oxide (MOX) fuel, further progress on the option has been conspicuous by its absence. Over the intervening years the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) appears to have been concentrating … [Continue Reading]
Is the case for re-using UK’s plutonium stockpile losing its sparkle? [No 04/15]
Seeking clarification on the Environment Agency’s statement to Sellafield’s local stakeholder group (WCSSG) meeting on 9th June that, with ONR, it has been asked by the NDA to review the option of immobilising plutonium, CORE received the following response from the NDA: “Research work on the immobilisation of plutonium is being carried out to find … [Continue Reading]
21Today. Sellafield’s THORP reprocessing plant – A Lame Duck and Loser [No 03/15]
As anniversaries go, the 27th March 2015 – which marks 21 years since THORP chopped up its first batch of spent nuclear fuel – warrants little celebration. Opened in 1994, the £2.85Bn plant had been dubbed by BNFL as the Jewel in Sellafields’s Crown and a World Beating Flagship Plant that would reprocess 7000 tonnes … [Continue Reading]
While Sellafield’s clean-up costs soar to £53Billion – rising by almost £6Bn last year alone – the costs for all 17 NDA-owned sites could reach £220Bn [No 02/15]
With the Sellafield figures published in the National Audit Office report (March 2015) – ‘Progress on the Sellafield site: an update’, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority faces a renewed grilling from the Government’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on March 11th. Chair of the Committee MP Margaret Hodge has said she will be seeking an explanation from … [Continue Reading]
Sellafield clean-up consortium stripped of its contract [No 01/15]
Just six years into what was supposed to be a 17-year deal, estimated to worth some £22Bn, to run the Sellafield site under contract to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), the consortium Nuclear Management Partners (NMP) has been stripped of its contract by Government. The consortium is made up of the US company URS, France’s … [Continue Reading]
More musical chairs for NuGen’s new-build plans at Moorside [No 13/14]
Nothing paints a better picture of the hesitant commitment to build new reactors at Moorside than the half-hearted resolve of some of NuGen’s consortium partners since their 2009 purchase of an option to develop the 199 hectare site adjacent to Sellafield. For even before the dust has settled on the corporate comings and goings through … [Continue Reading]
North Sea nuclear transport drama highlights supreme folly of NDA plans to ship highly radioactive materials from Dounreay to Sellafield [No 12/14]
Contentious plans by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) to ship some 26 tonnes of ‘exotic’ nuclear materials (irradiated and unirradiated plutonium and highly enriched uranium fuels) from Dounreay to Sellafield have moved a major step closer following recent sea and port trials in Scottish waters undertaken by the NDA’s ship Oceanic Pintail which is based … [Continue Reading]