Two Barrow-registered nuclear ships are gearing up to sail to France in the next few days where they will load a consignment of plutonium MOX fuel at Cherbourg for shipment to Japan. The armed nuclear ships Pacific Heron and Pacific Egret belong to Pacific Nuclear Transport Ltd (PNTL) and are currently loading stores and making … [Continue Reading]
CORE releases results of its investigation into Sellafields’s chronic failure to set and meet targets for its underperforming commercial facilities
Last year’s damning National Audit Office (NAO) report on Sellafield and the competence of its owners the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) – and the subsequent criticisms of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) following its visit to the site – had little positive to say about Sellafield apart from ‘other activities on the … [Continue Reading]
Brave County Council decision puts nuclear waste dumping plans back where they belong – on a national basis
Voting 7 to 3 against moving to the next stage of the Government’s MRWS process, the County Council’s Cabinet decision represents not only a bold recognition of the level of opposition of Cumbrian communities but also a commitment to prevent the region being ‘prostituted’ by a Government plan that contained no Plan B. Earlier in … [Continue Reading]
CORE letter to Cumbria County Council Leader & Cabinet on nuclear waste process
We write to you in your capacity as Leader of Cumbria County Council (CCC) and in relation to the impending decision by your Cabinet whether or not the County should proceed to Stage 4 of the Government’s MRWS programme. We raise the following points with you and ask that you and your Cabinet, as an … [Continue Reading]
Yet more ‘intolerable risk’ as Sellafield MOX fuel awaits shipment to Germany
Just one week after the Government’s National Audit Office (NAO) published its damning report on the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and the state of ageing facilities at Sellafield, the NDA is preparing to ship a consignment of high risk (Category 1) plutonium MOX fuel from the port of Workington to Germany on board its ship … [Continue Reading]
Voodoo Economics at Sellafield
Rumours that costs of Sellafield’s already delayed Evaporator D project had risen above the £400M figure were admitted by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) at a meeting of the West Cumbria Sites Stakeholder Group (WCSSG) yesterday 6th November. In response to a question from CORE (Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment), the NDA confirmed that … [Continue Reading]
Another nail in the Sellafield new-build coffin
Plans to build new nuclear reactors adjacent to Sellafield have suffered a major and possibly terminal setback with the announcement that Spanish energy giant Iberdrola is to pull out of the NuGeneration (NuGen) consortium which planned to develop up to 3.6 GW of nuclear power at the new station. Price and construction costs are believed … [Continue Reading]
Maritime safety compromised by UK’s plutonium ship operators as details emerge of final MOX fuel shipment from Sellafield
Plans to ship plutonium MOX fuel assemblies from Sellafield to the small German port of Nordenham near Bremerhaven on the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s ageing ship Atlantic Osprey will have put opposition activists in Germany on full alert. Details of the transport, divulged in a letter by a Nordenham administrator after an 8th August 2012 meeting … [Continue Reading]
Public misled over ‘pristine’ West Cumbrian Beaches. CORE demands radiation safety warnings
Copeland Council may well be thrilled by the Quality Coast Awards to 4 of its beaches and celebrate with nice new shiny beach safety and Tourist Information Boards. These sentiments are shared neither by CORE nor by a father in a recent custody battle who claimed his son was being put at risk by visiting … [Continue Reading]
Flying into trouble at Sellafield
Unusual pathways by which radioactivity routinely escapes the confines of nuclear sites are well documented with one recent example to hit the headlines being the 6000 mile transportation of radioactive contamination by bluefin tuna from the polluted waters around the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant to the coasts of North America. An even more recent … [Continue Reading]