A rail transport of irradiated nuclear fuel was held-up today by a member of CORE (Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment) as it left Barrow Docks en route for Sellafield.
The train consisted of nuclear fuel transport containers drawn by BNFL’s rail subsidiary Direct Rail Services (DRS). The transport included nuclear fuel from Italy’s Garigliano power station which closed down over 20 years ago. Italy scrapped its nuclear power programme following a public referendum in 1987 in which 87% voted against nuclear power.
CORE Campaign Coordinator Martin Forwood, who shackled himself onto the railway line to prevent the transport moving from the private docks rail system onto the main public line, said:
“ We oppose all nuclear transports to and from Sellafield because of the unjustified risks they pose. It beggars belief that, after 20 years of storage in Italy, it is now being sent to Sellafield and to THORP which can’t even cope with its existing orders. The Italian transport is particularly unwelcome because, with no nuclear power, Italy will clearly not be taking back the uranium or plutonium recovered at THORP and we’ll end up stockpiling it all”.
Industry documents show that around 60 fuel assemblies from Garigliano were contracted for reprocessing at Sellafield’s THORP plant. 13 such transports are expected to be made by rail from Garigliano west of Turin via Switzerland to Dunkirk. The second shipment is expected in around two months time.
All irradiated nuclear fuel, whether in reactor, in storage or under transport contains nuclear weapons useable plutonium and today’s transport was no exception said CORE
“Having just witnessed the destruction of Iraq in a search for weapons of mass destruction , its ironic that no-one bats an eyelid as some of the very same materials are routinely dragged through Barrow and West Cumbria by courtesy of BNFL “.