Hopes of an environmentally friendly and diversified business future for West Cumbria have been dashed by today’s well-trailed approval by Government of the suitability of the greenfield site north of Sellafield for new reactor build. CORE’s spokesman Martin Forwood said today This fixation on suffocating West Cumbria with all things nuclear ignores the wealth of … [Continue Reading]
Japanese shockwaves could scupper the Sellafield MOX Plant’s revival
Sellafield’s euphoria at last year’s NDA announcement of a Japanese rescue package for the Sellafield MOX Plant (SMP) may be dashed by the ongoing nuclear fallout from Japan. This includes not only last week’s demand by the country’s Prime Minister Naoto Kan that Chubu Electric’s Hamaoka be closed down (the only utility to place a … [Continue Reading]
Still the Dirty Old Man of Europe – Sellafield
Still the Dirty Old Man of Europe – Sellafield discharges set to breach marine pollution targets. A report published today by CORE [Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment] exposes Sellafield’s plans for substantial increases in radioactive discharges to the Irish Sea over the coming decade. The rate of discharge from planned reprocessing operations, and subsequent … [Continue Reading]
CORE comments on Government Plutonium Plans
Few observers will be surprised at the Government’s ‘gung-ho’ approach to dealing with the UK’s plutonium stockpile, announced today by the Department of Energy and Climate Change, with its preferred option to convert the plutonium into mixed oxide fuel (MOX) for use at some unspecified date in the future in UK reactors that may never … [Continue Reading]
NDA Public Consultation – an increasingly pointless exercise
As the public consultation on the NDA’s current Draft 3-year Business Plan (2011-2014) reaches its closure date this week, CORE raises concerns over the poor level of information provided for consultation, and questions the merits of responding to plans upon which decisions have clearly already been made. For the Sellafield site, with a planned NDA … [Continue Reading]
The Redfern Inquiry – CORE’s response
As Inquiries into nuclear activities go, the findings of the three-year Inquiry lead by Michael Redfern QC published today, stand out as a refreshingly honest and hard-hitting indictment of the cavalier and unethical practices of harvesting organs from deceased Sellafield workers from the 1960’s to 1992. Few individuals or organisations directly involved in the removal … [Continue Reading]
Honey Pot Lake District in the Frame for Underground Nuclear Dump
In ruling out the suitability of north-western fringes of the Copeland and Allerdale areas, the British Geological Society’s desk to study has pointed the finger at the Western Lake District and southern areas of Copeland as being worthy of further investigation for the siting of an underground nuclear dump. With West Cumbrian local authorities being … [Continue Reading]
German RWE’s reactor plans booted out of West Cumbria
In what will be a major setback for the pro-nuclear lobby, the two greenfield sites at Kirksanton and Braystones – earmarked for up to 6 new reactors – have been ditched ‘as unsuitable’ by Government. As reported by DECC yesterday, the two coastal sites will no longer feature in the repeat public consultation to be … [Continue Reading]
Operational Blunders at Sellafield Caused Delay to Dutch HLW Return
Details of the troubled HLW return shipment from Sellafield to Holland earlier this year were given to Barrow’s Ramsden Dock Liaison Committee meeting yesterday the 10th May. Operators of the nuclear cargo vessel fleet International Nuclear Services (INS) provided some clarification as to why the sailing from Barrow of the Atlantic Osprey – already loaded … [Continue Reading]
A Dog’s Dinner by any other name
A critical report on the Government’s attempt to rush through plans to build new nuclear power stations in West Cumbria and other UK sites is published today by the Select Committee on Energy and Climate Change. The National Policy Statements (NPS) launched by Government for public consultation on 9th November 2009, already highly criticised by … [Continue Reading]