UK: Nuclear train route runs into opposition

[John Ashworth]

Nuclear train route to Sellafield runs into opposition from local councils

Trains transporting radioactive uranium and plutonium could become target for terrorists, authorities warn

Rob Edwards
guardian.co.uk, Friday 26 August 2011 20.18 BST

A plan to transport 44 tonnes of radioactive uranium and plutonium by train has run into opposition from councils worried about accidents and terrorist attacks.

The government's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) plans to make about 50 rail shipments over the next five years from the Dounreay nuclear site in Caithness to the Sellafield reprocessing complex in Cumbria.

It wants to process material left over from Britain's long-abandoned fast breeder reactor programme – a class of reactors that aim to produce more fuel as they operate – to extract plutonium and uranium for re-use or disposal. But councils say this is dangerous and risks theft of nuclear material by terrorists en route, arguing the material should be treated as waste and "immobilised" at Dounreay.

A consultation on the plan is due to end on 31 August, and, if agreed, shipments will begin next year. The NDA argues there is a "clear and compelling strategic case" for moving the material 500km (310 miles) south. The safety record for transporting nuclear flasks is "well proven" and the environmental impact of the shipments will be "minimal", the NDA says. Sending the material to Sellafield will cost about £60m, compared with an estimated cost of £65m for keeping it at Dounreay.

But "Nuclear-Free Local Authorities" a local government group, which describes itself as the "local government voice on nuclear issues" has condemned the plan for breaching important environmental principles. There are seven member councils, all in Scotland, through which the nuclear material could travel by rail, depending on the route it takes. They are Perth & Kinross, Fife, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Renfrewshire, West Dumbartonshire and Dundee.

The group says the plan fails to ensure that radioactive waste is managed as close as possible to the site where it was produced. It would also lead to increased radioactive discharges into the environment from Sellafield during reprocessing, the councils argue. The risk of terrorists stealing the material in transit to make it into a dirty bomb, or even crude nuclear weapons, meant that it would have to be protected by armed guards, they claim.

"I am very worried about the movement of such sensitive materials across Scotland to Sellafield," said George Regan, the chair of the nuclear-free local authorities and a Labour councillor in Dundee.

"The NDA's proposals clearly breach key environmental principles and I ask them to think again," he added. "As they stand, they set some very worrying precedents for the future."

A spokesman for the NDA accepted that discharges from Sellafield could increase, but insisted this would amount to less than 1% a year and be well within agreed environmental limits. He denied that armed guards would be needed for the shipment of such "lightly irradiated" material.

"The transportation of nuclear materials such as spent fuel happens on a daily basis across the UK and has done so for more than half a century without incident," he said.

"The movement of materials is highly regulated by international standards and procedures. The material at Dounreay is not waste, it is a nuclear material from the fast breeder reactor programme that requires appropriate management."

The NDA spokesman added: "The NDA has discussed this study with local stakeholders in both Caithness and Cumbria and welcomes comments in advance of a decision on the appropriate way forward later this year."

Dounreay was the UK centre for developing fast breeder reactors, which aimed to create new fuel as they consumed it, until the programme was cancelled in 1988. The site is now being decommissioned at a cost of £2.6bn, with aim of finishing by 2032.