Plans by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and International Nuclear Services (INS), who manage the ships on the NDA’s behalf, to continue using nuclear ships Oceanic Pintail and Atlantic Osprey for the transport of highly radioactive cargoes in European and Atlantic waters will raise major safety concerns as both vessels are kept in service beyond their ‘sell-by’ date. The failure by INS two years ago to replace the Atlantic Osprey with a new-build vessel has lead to the Oceanic Pintail being pressed back into service as a stop-gap measure despite being laid-up at Barrow in 2010 and due for withdrawal from service in line with previous retirement practice which has seen all their ships scrapped at or before 25 years service.
CORE’s spokesman Martin Forwood said today: “INS and NDA are playing fast and loose with maritime safety by press-ganging the old Pintail back into service when she should have been retired and scrapped. Stemming solely from the failure to secure a new replacement ship for the Atlantic Osprey, this ‘stop-gap’ use of the Pintail seriously compromises the safety of nuclear shipments and poses significant risks to the marine environment and communities along transport routes”.
The plan to save the Oceanic Pintail (ex Pacific Pintail) from the scrap-yard and press her back into service was put to the INS Board of Directors in November 2010. A redacted copy of the INS proposal – ‘Proposed Utilisation of Pacific Pintail as an Interim Solution for European Business’ – was obtained by CORE on 5th April 2012 in response to a Freedom of Information request. The proposal not only confirms that ships ‘have traditionally been retired from service before their 25th birthdays’, but also acknowledges that the extended use of the Oceanic Pintail ‘as an interim low-cost measure’ will ‘present some PR difficulties’.
Despite a number of major ship surveys for the Oceanic Pintail being shown as due by Lloyds Shipping Register, the ship was nevertheless dispatched by INS to Sweden early this year shortly after being taken into NDA ownership. Unconfirmed reports suggest that in Sweden she loaded a cargo of Swedish/US origin plutonium from the AB SVAFO facility at Studsvik for return to the US. Arriving in Charleston in late March, the Oceanic Pintail left the US on the 3rd April 2012 (cargo unknown) heading for the UK where she is due to dock at Falmouth on 16th April.
Of equal concern is INS confirmation of the public doubts about the Atlantic Osprey’s current fitness for service. Describing reservations by the French Safety Authority ASN about the continued use of the Atlantic Osprey for Category 1 cargoes as ‘presenting difficulties’, INS also concedes that there is ‘reduced public acceptance/political credibility of the ship to undertake these shipments’. Whilst Category 1 materials include plutonium, high level radioactive wastes and MOX fuel, the Atlantic Osprey’s INF2 classification restricts the aggregate radioactivity of the nuclear materials that can be carried.
Following major ‘life extension’ work being carried out on the Atlantic Osprey in 2009, the plan to upgrade the ship to INF3 standard was abandoned because of concerns about ship stability. As a result, INS launched a tendering process the same year through the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) to replace her with a new-build INF3 ship at a cost of some £44M. That process was itself abandoned in September 2010 ‘because the economic climate at that time meant that a justification for the procurement of a new vessel could not be made’. The plan to re-instate the Pintail was proposed just two months later as a cheap alternative.
The INS proposal indicates that in preparation for her imminent demise, safety equipment in the form of the its ‘Sonardyne sunken vessel location system’ has already been removed from the Atlantic Osprey and refitted onto the Oceanic Pintail.
CORE’s spokesman added: “Like rogue traders, INS/NDA are clearly putting business needs before maritime safety. Not only have they plumped for the cheapskate option of resurrecting the old Pintail but are also clearly prepared to ignore official reservations about the continued use of the Atlantic Osprey – with some safety equipment already removed – by scheduling her to transport an already contentious cargo of Category 1 MOX fuel from Sellafield to Europe in the near future. We’ll be urging Government to step in and stop this dangerous move”.
The Oceanic Pintail. Built in 1987 as the Pacific Pintail, the ship was operated by Pacific Nuclear Transport Ltd (PNTL) almost exclusively on nuclear transports to and from Japan. Along with her sister ship Pacific Teal she was fitted with ‘physical protection equipment’ in the form of three naval canon at Barrow in 1999 in preparation for shipping the ‘falsified’ MOX fuel from Sellafield to Japan the same year with an armed security crew and escorted by the Pacific Teal. Having completed all work for PNTL, the guns were removed from the Pintail and fitted on the Pacific Egret – one of three new ships that have recently join the PNTL fleet.
In 2001, a Supplement of the Lloyds Register Classification Survey recorded that a survey on the Pacific Crane, another sister ship to the Pintail, showed that ‘steel plate tank tops, separating the cargo area from the fuel area, were reported to have corroded in excess of the 30% wastage level permitted by the Lloyds Classification Society . Initial results from a subsequent survey by Lloyds on the other PNTL ships indicated similar corrosion problems on other vessels including the Pacific Pintail. The implication of compromising the ships’ ability to survive collisions or survive severe weather impacts as a result of the corrosion was raised in a letter to the then Secretary of State for Transport by MP David Chaytor in 2002. The timing and extent of any remediation work carried out on the Pacific Pintail remains unknown.
Current plans for the Oceanic Pintail’s life extension suggest that she is likely to be kept in service until at least 2015 when she will be approaching 28 years of age. The INS proposal projects a work schedule for expected European and Atlantic trade which, given the problems of the Atlantic Osprey, will be carried out by the Oceanic Pintail which remains classified as INF3. Though all detail of these future shipments is redacted, the work will certainly include the return of HLW to European customers and is likely to be undertaken from Barrow docks rather than the Atlantic Osprey’s home port of Workington.
The Atlantic Osprey. Built in 1986, was purchased third-hand from German owners in 2001 by BNFL and is now over 26 years old. Converted from a roll-on roll-off ferry by BNFL and based at the Port of Workington, the ship’s recent cargoes have included HLW and plutonium fuel (MOX) from Sellafield to European customers. Since returning in November 2011 from the Swedish port of Nykoping, the Atlantic Osprey has lain idle at Workington. As her role is taken over by the Oceanic Pintail, the Atlantic Osprey ‘is to be sold or decommissioned on an early timescale’ according to the INS proposal.
Her early life with BNFL saw breakdowns at sea and an engine room fire, all of which have added to public concerns about her safety and security. Unlike her larger PNTL counterparts, the ship has only one engine, no naval canon fitted and travels without escort.