In a press release of 23rd April, the Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) has given permission for the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) – managers of Sellafield’s 118 tonne plutonium stockpile – to arrange title swaps and transfers for some of the 24 tonnes of foreign-owned plutonium currently held in the obscenely large and dangerous stockpile accumulated over the years through Sellafield’s reprocessing operations.
The transfers will result in some 3 tonnes of foreign plutonium (including material of German and Dutch origin) being added to the UK-owned stocks, and just over half a tonne of German plutonium being transferred directly into Japan’s existing 16-tonne stock already stored at Sellafield.
CORE spokesman Martin Forwood said today:
‘These swaps and transfers expose the utter nonsense of the much vaunted reprocessing contracts which specifically require every overseas customer to take their plutonium back. The deal will see the UK deliberately sacrificed as a plutonium dumping ground as overseas customers increasingly abandon interest in plutonium use. 4 tonnes of German plutonium was transferred to UK ownership only last summer and the NDA has already floated the idea all Japanese plutonium being taken over by the UK’.
The plutonium figures in DECC’s announcement today also provide a stark reminder of the catastrophic failure of the Sellafield MOX plant (SMP). For included in the arrangement to transfer 3 tonnes of foreign material to UK ownership are 1850kg of plutonium owed to France’s Areva who had to step in to make the MOX fuel that SMP was unable to produce.
Though it remains unclear exactly how Government intends to deal with the now increased stock of UK-owned plutonium, it maintains that its preference is to convert the plutonium into MOX fuel via a new MOX plant at Sellafield. The cost of a new facility has been estimated by the NDA at between £5-6Bn, yet there is no evidence of the existence of a market for any fuel that it might produce, nor any indication of who will stump up the money for such a risky venture.
Martin Forwood added:
‘Lessons have clearly not been learned from the UK’s past MOX mistakes which have already cost the taxpayer a fortune. Rather than pursuing the delusions of a new MOX plant and the fading hopes of a fleet of new UK reactors to burn MOX fuel, common sense dictates that Government and NDA should treat plutonium as a waste and put it out of harm’s way once and for all’.