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CORE

Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment

All change at the Sellafield Visitor Centre [No 05/04]

Changes to the Sellafield Visitor Centre are expected shortly when control of the Centre’s exhibits returns temporarily to British Nuclear Fuels. The Science Museum, which has operated the Centre since 2002 has confirmed that, in advance of the Centre being taken over on 1st April next year by the newly formed Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), … [Continue Reading]

All change at the top? [No 03/04]

BNFL has today refused to confirm weekend speculation in the Financial Mail that Gordon Campbell, chairman of defence services group Babcock International, will be appointed new chairman of BNFL this week. He would take over from current chairman Hugh Collum who announced his resignation from the post in November last year. If his appointment is … [Continue Reading]

Blast Proof Wall for Sellafield’s Plutonium Stores [No 02/04]

West Cumbrian local authority Copeland Borough Council has recently approved BNFL plans to build a concrete protective barrier around the two Sellafield plutonium stores. Buildings B3023 and B3023.1 are used to store plutonium, in dioxide powder form, recovered from the site’s reprocessing operations. The material is contained in triple-layered stainless steel cans. Latest figures from … [Continue Reading]

Second Nuclear Ship Laid Off [No 01/04]

BNFL confirmed yesterday (2nd February) that they are to lay off the ship Pacific Swan. Whilst no press statement has been issued by the company, a BNFL press spokesperson said today that ‘the ship had completed all its scheduled work’. The Pacific Swan, oldest ship of the nuclear fleet, joins the Pacific Crane which was … [Continue Reading]

Sellafield Pipeline – Update and Prosecution [No 12/03]

Lengths of Sellafield’s plastic discharge pipe which escaped their sea-bed containment cage in late November are still being washed up around the northern Irish Sea. As part of BNFL’s £13M Sealine Recovery Project, the cutting up of the 8-inch plastic pipeline commenced in late summer, but all work has now been halted by the Environment … [Continue Reading]

Off-site Technetium 99 contamination getting worse [No 11/03]

A meeting of the Sellafield Local Liaison Committee (SLLC) on 4th December was told of the Environment Agency’s concerns about the increasing spread of Technetium 99 (Tc-99) in groundwater outside the Sellafield site. In its six-monthly review, the Agency reports its dissatisfaction with BNFL’s progress in dealing with the off-site leakage which it describes as … [Continue Reading]

Plutonium in Children’s Teeth [No 10/03]

The re-emergence of evidence that Sellafield’s plutonium is found in children’s teeth has brought the expected response from British Nuclear Fuels and Sellafield’s pro-nuclear Member of Parliament Dr Jack Cunningham. Both have ventured that the plutonium might have come from nuclear weapons fallout rather than from Sellafield’s reprocessing operations. Whilst it suits BNFL’s purpose to … [Continue Reading]