N-Base Briefing 482


N-Base Briefing 482
21st January 2006
ISSN 1478-4661

Sodium waste coming to Dounreay

The UKAEA has applied to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) for revised waste discharge authorisations – including permission to import radioactive sodium from the UKAEA's Winfrith site in England and the CEA Caderache site in France. The waste would be treated in the sodium plant at Dounreay that was built to treat the radioactive sodium from the site's two fast reactors.

New waste inventory

The nuclear waste agency Nirex has published a new inventory of the UK's radioactive waste at April 2004. Nirex says there are 241,000 cubic metres of intermediate level waste and 1,340 cubic metres of high-level waste, a drop of 11 per cent since the 2001 inventory. Low-level waste total 1.51 million cubic metres, a 35 per cent increase. Details at www.nirex.co.uk/foi/uninvent/sum2004.pdf

Private managers

As part of the deal the UKAEA has struck with commercial companies to form a consortium to bid for decommissioning contracts in the UK, managers from the US company CH2M Hill and the British company AMEC are to be drafted into Dounreay. Six managers from each company are to be moved to the UKAEA.

Abysmal debate

New nuclear reactors are not needed in the UK to reduce greenhouse gases according to Kevin Anderson, a senior research fellow at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. Mr Anderson said nuclear power would do little to fight climate change. He said the standard of the debate in the UK on the issue was "abysmal".

Thorp risks

The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate has called for 49 improvements at the Thorp reprocessing plant at Sellafield following the major leak that shut the plant after it was discovered last April. An internal British Nuclear Fuel inquiry states that the assumption that leaks at the plant were unlikely had led to a "complacent" operational culture. Now BNFL believes "it seems likely that there will remain a significant chance of further plant failures occurring in the future."

Draft report

The Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CORWM) has published the draft of its final report on how the UK's nuclear waste stockpiles should be managed. But the draft contains no details of the committee's conclusions, just the chapter headings and report structure. The draft chapter on conclusions does contain one interesting comment: paragraph 64 states "If Ministers accept our recommendations, the UK's nuclear waste problem is not solved. Having a strategy is a start. The real challenge follows." Full details from www.corwm.org.uk/content-906

EU judgement

The Advocate-General at the European Court of Justice has ruled that Ireland breached EU rules by complaining about pollution from Sellafield to a UN tribunal. Instead the Irish Government should have used EU institutions and regulations.

Hunterston waste

Regulators are investigating five waste pits near the Hunterston nuclear site where radioactive waste has been dumped. The pits are outwith the licensed site and documents detailing their contents have gone missing.