In a draft of its next 3-year programme for Sellafield (2008-2011) published today, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) plans to extend the life of Sellafield’s magnox reprocessing plant from 2012 to ‘2016 or later’. The magnox reprocessing plant B205 is responsible for a majority of the site’s overall discharges. The planned extension to its working … [Continue Reading]
NDA plan reinstates UK as Dirty Old Man of Europe
In a draft of its next 3-year programme for Sellafield (2008-2011) published today, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) plans to extend the life of Sellafield’s magnox reprocessing plant from 2012 to ‘2016 or later’. The magnox reprocessing plant B205 is responsible for a majority of the site’s overall discharges. The planned extension to its working … [Continue Reading]
Fifty Years On
On the 50th Anniversary of the Windscale Fire, the bravery of those who tackled it and those who died or suffered health damage locally, nationally and in Europe as a result of the radioactivity released will be remembered by local pressure group CORE [Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment. As a simple gesture of remembrance, … [Continue Reading]
Number of Radioactive Finds on Local Beaches has Doubled in a month
Reliable information received by CORE has warned of a significant increase in the number of radioactive objects found on the beaches local to Sellafield in recent weeks and that full details of the dramatic rise is being kept under wraps for fear of creating public alarm. After 35 finds were originally disclosed to the Environmental … [Continue Reading]
Further delay for THORP – Re-opening now unlikely until mid 2007 at the earliest
British Nuclear Group (BNG) at Sellafield who operate the Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (THORP) under contract to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has admitted that there will be yet a further delay to the return to full operation of the plant. Following recent confirmation from BNG that, although receiving consent to restart operations from the … [Continue Reading]
High Court ruling against Government on nuclear power
CORE campaigners today welcomed the High Court ruling by Mr Justice Sullivan that the Government had failed to carry out a proper public consultation before re-instating nuclear power in its 2006 Energy Review. Ruling on the case brought by Greenpeace, the Judge described the consultation process as being seriously flawed, procedurally unfair, not merely inadequate … [Continue Reading]
THORP, from ten-year ‘wonder’ plant to fifteen-year financial fiasco – who’s fleecing who over its accident costs ?
Living up to its white elephant reputation, THORP faces yet another crisis in the form of who’ll be paying the conservatively estimated £50M costs of the leak accident which will have kept the plant closed for two years. THORP is owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and operated under contract by British Nuclear Group … [Continue Reading]
NDA commitment to THORP re-start challenged by CORE
In response to the admission by British Nuclear Group (BNG) in its 6th December in-house Sellafield Newsletter that THORP is unlikely to re-start either shearing or chemical separation operations until April 2007, CORE calls on the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) to justify re-opening the plant at all after what will amount to a 2 year … [Continue Reading]
Risks of secret plutonium fuel shipment from Barrow unmasked
In a radical departure from accepted safety standards, British Nuclear Group (BNG) at Sellafield plans to transport a shipment of highly contentious plutonium MOX fuel through Barrow docks this weekend using the insecure Anchor Line Basin dock which has limited safety features. The temporary closure for repairs of Workington docks, normally used for such shipments, … [Continue Reading]
Government decision to entrust NDA with waste disposal ‘plain stupid and probably unworkable’
Following the announcement (25th October) by Environment Secretary David Milliband that ‘the responsibility for securing geological disposal of waste should fall to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’, local pressure group CORE has branded the decision as plain stupid and probably unworkable. The NDA, whose initial remit of clean- up and decommissioning work at nuclear sites around … [Continue Reading]