Local pressure group CORE (Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment) has today condemned the resumed import by BNFL of five more transport flasks containing spent nuclear fuel waste from the Neckarwestheim and Biblis power stations in Germany.
The shipment, which contains around 13 tonnes of spent fuel waste, arrived at Barrow Docks over the weekend and is being unloaded from BNFL’s European Shearwater today under police security prior to undertaking the rail journey from Barrow to Sellafield for reprocessing.
A CORE spokesperson said today: “ These unnecessary transports pose an unacceptable safety risk to all who live along the transport route. West Cumbria must now bare the brunt of the further radioactive discharges, environmental contamination and accumulations of nuclear waste which will result from reprocessing the fuel, and Germany will not only pay through the nose for BNFL’s neolithic laundry service but will have to take back under contract an even greater number of shipments of radioactive materials and wastes in the years ahead “.
A further 200 transport flasks of spent fuel waste are expected to be sent to Sellafield from Germany over the next 4 years under contracts signed many decades ago. 2005 will see the official end to any further transports as part of Germany’s nuclear power phase-out. German public opposition to these transports is increasingly strident and committed, and is based on a determination that their nuclear waste problems should be dealt with in Germany and not off-loaded to the detriment of communities in other countries.
CORE added: “ The joke about how many politicians it takes to change a light bulb is rapidly being upstaged by how many policemen it takes to guard German nuclear waste. BNFL may argue the legality of this trade, but any moral, economic and environmental justification for it went out of the window years ago “.
For further information contact CORE on 01229 833851 or mobile 0789 999 1146.