Waste transport will increase radioactivity - MEP

Transporting more than 40 tonnes of highly radioactive material from Scotland for reprocessing at Sellafield would almost certainly increase emissions into the Irish Sea, the Green Party claimed today.

As part of the £4 billion plan to clean-up the Dounreay nuclear plant some 40 tonnes of highly radioactive waste will have to be reprocessed or stored.

A spokesman for the company said a decision on reprocessing the fuel would be taken later this year. Winding down Dounreay fully is expected to take over 50 yaers.

Sellafield is the only facility in Britain capable of handling such material. A sea transport through the Irish Sea is the most likely means of transport.

Irish Green Party MEP, Ms Patricia McKenna, told Ireland.comreprocessing was not necessary for decommissioning of Dounreay and that on-site storage above ground was the only safe method of dealing with the material.

"Reprocessing the Dounreay waste [at Sellafield] would almost certainly increase radioactive discharges into the air and into the Irish Sea," she said.

The company said that the waste could be stored at Dounreay until a national disposal facility for Britain becomes available.

Dounreay announced this week that robots be used to cut and remove nine kms of radioactive pipework in the site’s fast breeder reactor.

High levels of radiation and temperatures of minus 18 degrees require the use of robots. The operation is expected to take at least 10 years.

Dounreay closed in 1996 after a leak was discovered. The British government withdrew funding for research programmes at the site and opted to decommission the facility in 1998.

In June 2000 the UK Atomic Energy Authority - which manages Britain’s decommissioning of nuclear reactors - which was fined £101,000 after pleading guilty to a series of safety breaches.

The following month a radioactive particle was found on a beach two miles from Dounreay, the 11th to be found since 1984.

In 1977 an explosion in the waste shaft where 750 square meters of material is stored underground blew off the 12.5 ton concrete lid.

http://www.ukaea.org.uk/