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]
28-year old ‘stop gap’ ship Oceanic Pintail to transport highly radioactive High Level Waste (HLW) from Sellafield to Cherbourg for onward delivery to Switzerland
The International Nuclear Services company that manages ships owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has confirmed that the first ‘return’ shipment of HLW to Switzerland from Sellafield will be made from Barrow Docks in early to mid-September on the Oceanic Pintail. The ship will be carrying three transport flasks holding a total of some … [Continue Reading]
Moorside Land Grab by NuGen
Moorside Land Grab by NuGen, with compulsory purchase on the cards, sees the “biggest construction project in Europe” more than double in size – from 200 to 552 hectares of farmland adjacent to Sellafield. Consultation documents published by NuGen on its new-build plans suggest a belated realisation by the developer that, given the topography, geology … [Continue Reading]
Regulator lets Sellafield breach High Level Waste storage limits – increasing site hazard and risk levels for at least twelve months and then sets the fox to guard the Sellafield chickens
In an innocuously titled report published in January this year, the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) admits that it has acceded to Sellafield’s demand to breach the current limits for the amount of highly radioactive liquid waste (HLW) it can accumulate in the site’s ageing and contentious HLW tanks. In what many will construe as … [Continue Reading]
Years of delay to Moorside’s new-build plans inevitable
An assessment published today by CORE titled ‘All Spin and No Substance’, reveals the extensive threats facing NuGen’s impossibly tight timeline for its Moorside project where the construction and operation of three Westinghouse AP1000 reactors is scheduled to be completed in a period of just six years (2020-2026). In countering the consortium’s spin, CORE’s assessment … [Continue Reading]
Copeland Planning Panel’s Pantomime – Beauty and the Beast
As reported in the Whitehaven News today, Copeland Borough Council’s planning panel, acting against planning officials’ advice, have rejected an application for one 30m high wind turbine for Peterburgh Farm near the village of Beckermet. Whilst regular readers of the newspaper will be familiar with the frequent rejection of wind turbine applications by Copeland Council … [Continue Reading]
Public Health England (PHE) buries its head in West Cumbrian sands along with radioactive particles and stones
Sellafield Ltd’s announcement of two ‘unusual finds’ on West Cumbrian beaches in May and June of this year – attributed to the new Groundhog Synergy 2 monitoring system introduced in May – should be ringing public health alarms in the corridors of those tasked to protect beach users from the radioactive materials routinely washed up … [Continue Reading]
NDA’s £13M funding for future nuclear power projects condemned by CORE
For an arm of the Government specifically tasked in 2005 with the clean-up and decommissioning of the UK’s dirty and deteriorating nuclear licensed sites, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s announcement today (E-bulletin, 30th September) that it is to pour £13 Million of taxpayers’ money ‘to help develop innovative technologies for the current and next generation of … [Continue Reading]
Nuclear Regulator ONR – ‘Independent’ – or ‘In Cahoots’ with the nuclear industry ?
Following concerns raised earlier this year about the direction currently being taken by the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), the announcement this week in the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s E-Bulletin of 27th August that the Office for Nuclear Regulation has joined the newly convened ‘N-Group’ ( http://www.nda.gov.uk/2014/08/nda-joins-other-industry-voices/) raises major doubts about the Regulator’s independence from the … [Continue Reading]
A soapbox too far – CORE condemns use of taxpayer money for nuclear Vanity Project
Amongst a raft of Cumbrian ventures to have won funding last week from the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) is the proposed Nuclear Technology Innovation Gateway. £1.5M of taxpayers’ money has been secured for the new facility by Cumbria’s Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and, over the next 2 years, will go towards the … [Continue Reading]