AN environmental group and the Northern Isles local authorities have united against a planned series of nuclear waste shipments between Caithness and Belgium.
Dounreay site licence company DSRL intends moving the first of a series of consignments “fairly imminently” from Scrabster to a reactor in Mol.
The material is to be shipped over as part of an inter-government agreement dating back to the days when highly enriched nuclear fuel from all over the world was reprocessed at the Caithness site.
DSRL confirmed the first consignment is ready for dispatch to the BR2 reactor.
The announcement has fallen foul of anti-nuclear groups and the local authorities in Orkney and Shetland, which oppose movements of nuclear fuel by sea.
They are all calling for the waste to stay at Dounreay and be put into secure, long-term stores.
The 153-tonne payload of Belgium-bound material is due to be moved in 21 shipments over the next four years.
The cemented 500-litre drums are being returned in compliance with a standard clause written into the overseas reprocessing deals. Under the tie-up with the state-owned Belgian research reactor, spent fuel was sent to Dounreay where it was converted into fresh stocks and returned to produce medical isotopes.
BR2 was sent the last batch of fuel manufactured at Dounreay before the plant where the work was done was closed down in March 2004.
Stan Blackley, chief executive of Friends of the Earth Scotland, said the planned movements are an unnecessary “gamble”.
He said: “We continue to be against transporting nuclear waste between countries. Whether the waste is reprocessed or not, in cement or not, doesn’t really matter – it’s a bad idea in any case, and a gamble no government should be prepared to take.”
Mr Blackley added: “Sending waste from Scotland to anywhere is unnecessary and risky, with enormous potential for accidents, mistakes and even sabotage.
“It should not even be considered.”
FOE Scotland claims the waste should remain at Dounreay in secure, above-ground stores. That chimes with the respective stances of Orkney Islands Council and Shetland Islands Council.
Orkney councillor Steven Heddle, a member of Dounreay Stakeholder Group, said: “We have a long-standing opposition to shipments of nuclear material of any kind. Our policy is that material should be securely stored on the site.”
His Shetland Isles Council counterpart on DSG, Rick Nickerson, said it has similar concerns. He questioned whether DSRL has considered the recent decision not to renew the contracts for the emergency tugs which cover the Northern Isles and the Minch.
Mr Nickerson asked: “Has that been considered in the risk assessment of the shipments?”
DSRL’s Alex Anderson said the movements are part of its remit to decommission the site and to discharge the return-to-sender commitment.
Mr Anderson, head of waste and fuels at the site, said: “We’ve transported foreign fuel over the last 10 years and we’re now ready to return the foreign waste.
“It’s part of our job to deliver the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s mission to close down the site and we’re honouring the Government’s pledge to send back the foreign waste.”
Mr Anderson said a fraction of one per cent of the 300,000-plus tonnes of radioactive material generated by Dounreay’s clean-up is earmarked to leave the site.
He said the Belgian waste movements have been approved by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and comply with EU regulations.
While declining on security grounds to indicate when the first shipment is due, Mr Anderson said it is “fairly imminent”.
The return of waste to research reactors in Germany (235 tonnes) and Australia (76 tonnes) is dependent on discussions taking place with the UK and Scottish governments.
Like the Belgian contract, these were subject to the waste being returned within 25 years.
But the German and Australian reactor operators would prefer the material being returned in vitrified form, which cannot be done at Dounreay.
This could involve a “like-for-like” deal being struck and an equivalent amount of waste being shipped out from the Sellafield plant in Cumbria.
