Return Dounreay waste shipment to continent
A NUCLEAR cargo boat has just returned after delivering a consignment of nuclear waste from Dounreay to Belgium.
The Atlantic Osprey picked up the radioactive payload from Scrabster earlier this week and sailed to Antwerp from where it was taken by road to the BR2 reactor at Mol in the north-east of the country.
The deep-water Queen Elizabeth Pier at Scrabster was cordoned off while the drums of intermediate-level waste were loaded on to the 3649 tonne vessel, which is operated by International Nuclear Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.
It is the second movement in the scheduled dispatch of 123 drums to the Belgian reactor over the next four years. The first run took place at the end of August. The Atlantic Osprey today arrived aback at its home port of Workington.
The shipments are in compliance with a return-of-waste clause written into historic overseas reprocessing deals done by the UK Atomic Energy Authority.
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.
The runs have sparked protests from environmental campaigners who believe they could have disastrous consequences for the environment and leave the vessel open to a terrorist attack.
INS has defended the record and capability of the vessel and insists it complies with international specifications for its role in transporting nuclear material.
Read more about the movement in Wednesday’s Caithness Courier.