Nuclear Waste “Ship Shape and Barrow Fashion” Enthuse Committee As High Level Wastes Are Waved Off to Germany and the Port Gears Up to Receiving Ever More Atomic Wastes

Back in 1979 a report by the Political Ecology Research Group stated that an accident which involved a long lasting fire on a nuclear waste ship would lead to radioactive contamination of a 50km radius from Barrow. This understandably led to a great deal of concern and a staggering 14,000 people signed a paper petition calling for the halting of nuclear waste movements by ship.

BARROW ACTION GROUP

Image from Wastwater Chronicles

Barrow Action Group was formed and three citizens of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, challenged in court the construction by British Nuclear Fuels of a £6m dock extension in the town to accommodate nuclear waste ships docking less than 2km from a gas terminal.

The three members of Barrow & District Action Group Against the Import of Nuclear Waste, wanted to test the claim of BNFL that it needed no planning permission to carry out the extension.

BARROW COUNCIL PASS RESOLUTION OPPOSING NUCLEAR WASTE ENTERING THE PORT OF BARROW

Barrow Council passed a resolution opposing the shipments entering the port of Barrow and made several re-requests to BNFL that they should be kept informed of their every move in Barrow. BNFL failed to do this and in November 1980 started to construct their terminal without telling the local authority.

The site BNFL chose is within a dock basin designated also for the loading of highly inflammable liquid gas condensate. BNFL denied that an accident could happen; however, a report from the Safety and Reliability Directorate (a subsidiary of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority admitted that : –

“We believe that a substantial spill of condensate during loading could possibly result in fire engulfment of a ship unloading spent nuclear fuel flasks at the BNFL facility within the same dock basin.”

The costs of the legal action the group took was £10,000. If the case had been won it would have damaged the importing of nuclear waste to the then Windscale plant as well as jeopardising BNFLs contract business with reactors in the UK and overseas.

The trade in nuclear waste continues today with in the last week High Level Nuclear Wastes travelling by rail from Sellafield to the Port of Barrow and then onwards to Germany where the public do not want it back. The first shipment of six containers – known as flasks – to Biblis in Germany, was completed in 2020. Each flask is about 20ft (6m) long, with a 8ft (2.5m) diameter. The waste will be transported by sea from Barrow to a German port, then onwards by rail, there is no “final destination” for the waste.

image - low resolution screenshot of Biblis 2020 Protests from photo resource ALAMY

Not only is there no end in sight but the wastes earmarked to pass through Barrow would actually increase should the euphemistically named “Geological Disposal Facility” aka deep nuclear dump for high level nuclear wastes go ahead.

BARROW PORT PREPPED FOR NUCLEAR DUMP

The Committee on Radioactive Waste Management recently visited the Port of Barrow as a “stock-take on the preparations for transporting wastes to a Geological Disposal Facility.”

They go on to say that “At Barrow Port we were briefed on the UK national capability for seaborne transport, which is centred on 3 specially designed ships (originally purchased to collect spent fuels and return highly active wastes in support of reprocessing operations at Sellafield). The overall capability was impressive, well used to dealing with demanding and technically knowledgeable regular customers such as Japan and Germany, and occasionally the United States - all of whom had returned to Nuclear Transport Solutions for further demanding delivery tasks. There was an integrated relationship with security staffs including the Civil Nuclear Constabulary who provide an armed capability afloat. The Captain of MV Pacific Heron gave us an impressive briefing across the whole range of ship safety and security issues, based on decades of experience on transporting nuclear materials and wastes to and from Japan.”

All in all the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management decided that “The whole operation was plainly “ship-shape and Barrow fashion”.

Despite Barrow’s key role in “implementation of a geological disposal facility” aka deep hot nuclear dump, Government policy has been to remove Barrow and the surrounding Furness area from having any say at all on whether a geological dump should be sited in Cumbria. Not only does Barrow not have a say but neither does the full Cumberland Council - let alone the County or the neighbouring countries who would be impacted by a sub-sea nuclear dump.

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