For Nugen – the Toshiba/GDF Suez consortium behind plans for three AP1000 reactors on a green-field site adjacent to Sellafield – the imminent decision by the EU’s competition commissioners on the legality of the range of subsidies and guarantees being offered to developers by the UK Government, represents just one of many major hurdles along … [Continue Reading]
Moorside, Sellafield – implications of proposals for new reactors [No 10/14]
Introduction: On 30thJune, Japan’s electronics and engineering giant Toshiba announced it had acquired a 60% stake in the NuGen consortium which plans to build Westinghouse (AP1000) Pressurised Water Reactors (PWR) at a site next to Sellafield. The reactors will use fuel from the Westinghouse fuel fabrication facility at Springfields, Lancashire. The remaining 40% stake in … [Continue Reading]
1000 tonnes of THORP contracts abandoned by overseas customers since 1994 [No 09/14]
Since the £2.8Bn Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (THORP) was opened in 1994 – with the usual razzmatazz from its then owners British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL), Sellafield’s ’flagship’ reprocessing plant has lost some 1000 tonnes of business contracted by overseas customers. Prior to its opening in March 1994, in facing off legal challenges about THORP’s commercial … [Continue Reading]
Dounreay’s dangerous plutonium and HEU fuel may go by sea to Sellafield [No 08/14]
The Ramsden Dock Stakeholder meeting at Barrow-in-Furness today (17th July 2014) was told that trials will be undertaken at Barrow Docks this Autumn to assess the viability of sending Dounreay fuels – already earmarked for transport to Sellafield by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) – by sea through the port’s nuclear terminal at Ramsden Dock*. … [Continue Reading]
Japan takes the reins in NuGen’s ambitious plans to build reactors adjacent to Sellafield. [No 07/14]
In a 30th June press release, Japan’s electronics and engineering giant Toshiba announced that it had acquired a 60% stake in the NuGen consortium which plans to build Westinghouse (AP1000) Pressurised Water Reactors (PWR) on the coastal site adjacent to Sellafield. The reactors will be operated on fuel from the Westinghouse fuel fabrication facility at … [Continue Reading]
Sellafield Reprocessing Update – Missed targets and plans for Virtual Reprocessing [No 06/14]
The latest figures from Sellafield Ltd show that both magnox (B205) and oxide (THORP) reprocessing plants again failed to meet their respective annual targets. In a presentation to the site’s local stakeholder working group on spent fuels (29th April) the Company maintained however that the currently scheduled ‘end of reprocessing’ dates – ‘around 2020’ and … [Continue Reading]
Flouting safety controls in Sellafield’s High Level waste (HLW) facility, workers cautioned by ONR [No 05/14]
Two Sellafield workers have been officially cautioned by the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) for carrying out unauthorised work in the highly sensitive facility that contains the site’s High Level Waste Storage Tanks (HASTS). The cautioning of individuals by the ONR is unprecedented, with regulatory action historically taken against the company (Sellafield Ltd) itself rather … [Continue Reading]
Extended closure from system blockage may signal bigger problems for Sellafield’s B205 magnox reprocessing plant whose operations are now likely continue to 2022 or beyond. [No 04/14]
Already struggling to meets its currently scheduled closure date of December 2019 (extended a number of times from its original 2012 closure date) the ‘system blockage’ which forced the B205 magnox reprocessing plant to shut down on 23rd February not only flags up yet another failure by the plant to meet its annual target (for … [Continue Reading]
Escaping Government Scrutiny – NDA and NMP commercial operations fiasco at Sellafield obscured by media spotlight on clean-up and decommissioning problems [No 03/14]
Put under the microscope of various Government committees and accountancy firms, the performance of NDA and NMP has been found to be woefully lacking and increasingly bad news for the UK taxpayer – the long-suffering victim of nuclear incompetence. Little wonder that NDA/NMP are finding it difficult to keep their joint and shambolic handling of … [Continue Reading]
Sellafield site incident – non-essential workers told to stay at home [No 02/14]
Sellafield Limited has this morning advised that elevated levels of radioactivity are being detected at one of the site’s perimeter fence radiation monitors. Despite telling non-essential workers not to come to work, the company is assuring the wider world that there is no risk to either to the public off-site or to operational workers on … [Continue Reading]