Author: martynlowe

The Last Used Highly Radioactive Fuel Rods Sent From Wylfra To Sellafield.

Close Capenhurst Campaign Statement

Concerning the last radioactive fuel rods transported by rail from Wylfra.

While we welcome the end of highly radioactive used fuel rods being transported from Wylfra via Chester and Crewe to Sellafield.

We are still concerned about all the other nukiller fuel rods which are transported by DRS [Direct Rail Services ] to Sellafield via nearby Crewe.

We will continue to campaign upon this issue, together with the movement of Uranium Hexafluoride [ Hex ] to and from Capenhurst by road.

While continuing to support the demand of PAWB – People Against Wylfa-B that No New Atomic Power Plant be built on Anglesey .

Countering Capenhurst – Summer 2019

Yet Again – DRS

This year we published a new leaflet which was distributed at the DRS [ Direct Rail Services ] open day at Carlisle. Unlike the previous one we used, this new one can be distributed on other occasions.

You can see a copy of the text of the leaflet we used here: –

As in previous years this protest was organised in conjunction with Radiation Free Lakelands.

Follow on.

On June 1st a DRS nukiller waste flask passed through Warrington Bank Quay station on the way to Sellafield. We will be leafleting outside the station on Thursday August 15th as part of our work to inform people about these dangerous loads.

We will continue to organise more such leafleting sessions at other stations where these flasks go through, as a part of our public awareness work. These will be held outside stations in the nukiller north west. Please let us know if you want to join us on them.

If your in London then you can also join the ones which are organised by the Nuclear Waste Trains Action Group c/o CND Mordechai Vanunu House, 162 Holloway Road, London N7 8DQ

Long term campaigning – long term costs.

Most of the campaigning work we are engaged upon can not be achieved in just a matter of a few years, as the very nature of nukiller power means it will take decades to clean up the radioactive mess.

Thus we always need to think out how to maintain this long term campaigning, and how to finance this work.

Thus unlike many many campaigning groups we have to look at our long term finances and expenditures.

For example – In July we renewed out webpage domain name for another five years.

Then there are the ongoing costs which come from printing and distributing our leaflets.

We don’t have any staff or office to pay for, but there are still travel costs which need to be covered.

It all adds up +£+£+£

Last year we received a very generous donation from the Lush Fund, but we can not forever rely upon such funders to bankroll our work.

At present we are working to produce a new edition of Wildlife and the Atom, which was published by Greenpeace [ London ] in 1983.

That and a couple of other new publication we have in mind to produce will eat in to our finances.

So we are now appealing for your help to finance our essential campaigning work.

If you would like to make a contribution, then email us and we will tell you how it might be done.

Online Resources

7 reasons why nuclear energy is not the answer to solve climate change

Anniversaries & Forthcoming Events

October 10th – Springfields

We will be back at the Springfields plant to mark 61 years since the Windscale Fire.

This will be an event which starts at 14.00.

March 4th 2020

50 years since the signing of the Almelo Treaty.

We will be organising an event to mark this date.

More details later on in the year.

Counting The Cost – The New Capenhurst Tailings Plant.

The new tailings plant at Capenhurst raises more concerns.

Time and Materials.

The new Capenhurst tailing plant took an extra four years to complete than URENCO originally intended it to be. That is two years longer than the previous two years delay on the planned opening of the plant.

The plant is built of 55,000 cubic meters of concrete and 7,300 tonnes of steel.

At the official opening of the plant it was stated how that’s enough concrete to fill twenty Olympic sized swimming pools.

What was not stated is how the use of so much concrete impacts upon climate change.

In to the future.

URENCO have previously stated that the new tailing plant will be in operation until 2052.

Yet given the nukiller industries previous record of dragging work on, together with the four years delay in building the plant, we regard the 2052 date as no more than a guestimation.

From Germany and the Netherlands.

The Capenhurst plant will be processing Depleted Uranium Hex from the site, together with that from the URENCO plants in German and the Netherlands.

Given that we don’t know how much depleted hex is stored at Capenhurst, never mind the two other plants, we have no idea just what quantity of Hex will be processed. That says nothing about any more depleted depleted uranium Hex which might be created in the years to come.

By Sea

URENCO plan to ship over the depleted Uranium Hex from their plants in Germany and the Netherlands, and then ship back the resulting the Uranium Oxide to those plants.

Given that there is a prohibition on moving Hex through the Channel and other tunnels, all of this hex will need to be transported by road and sea.

There is no rail connection at the Capenhurst plant.

Thus we are looking to face the danger of Hex being moved that way for the next 35 years.

Telling the Real Tail About Tailings

A New Plant at Capenhurst.

Having spent almost One Billion pounds, and over four years late to complete, the new URENCO tailings plant at Capenhurst is opening this month.

The plant will convert the highly dangerous Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride [ Hex ] stored at the plant in to Uranium Oxide.

Depleted Uranium Hex is a highly toxic radioactive substance, which is corrosive to most metals, and should never be exposed to water.

It is estimated that the new plant will operate until 2052.

Past Mistakes

The depleted Uranium Hex at the Capenhurst plant was created as a part of the Uranium enrichment process, which is still being used to create more nukiller fuel rods.

In turn these fuel rods becomes highly radioactive nukiller waste, which adds to the existing radioactive problems at both Sellafield and Drigg.

There is just no need to produce energy this way.

Future Mistakes.

While the Capenhurst URENCO uranium enrichment plant is still in operation, it will continue contributing towards the making of yet more nukiller fuel, and thus much more highly radioactive waste.

Our continuing Demand.

We call for the closure of all uranium enrichment plants, and an end to the nukiller power industry.

Countering Capenhurst – June 2019

An open letter to URENCO upon the opening of new Capenhurst Tailings facility.

It has just been announced the Urenco are opening their new £1 Billion, and 2 years late, tailing plant in June.

We will be producing an open statement about this facility,which will be read outside of the Capenhurst plant on Saturday June 22nd.

More details will be published about this in the next couple of weeks.

Capenhurst Pamphlet online.

Copies of the CCC pamphlet are both available in print, and online.

Capenhurst in the news.

What They Say.

As ever we note that the URENCO website is way behind in telling us anything about what is going on at the plant. So we have to keep looking for information about both the Company and their plants from other sources.

However that said, it is still worth while taking a look at the URENCO website, even if it is full of corporate spin.

More new flasks.

It was reported in the April edition of the Railway Magazine, that W H Davis has just handed over eight new nukiller waste flasks to DRS.

That is on top of the 10 new ones which were reported about during 2014.

What we don’t know is just how many of these flasks are in use at any one time.

DRS Open Day demonstration.

DRS – The Nukiller waste train company has just announced it’s open day, which will be on July 20th.

We will be outside once more, leafleting about the dangers which come from moving high radioactive waste through out city centres.

More details to follow in the next few weeks.

URENCO at 50

Urenco was founded with the Treaty of Almelo on the 4th of March 1970.

New year we will be joining with others to mark 50 years since it was signed.

For more details – watch this space.

Weekly vigils outside London Japanese Embassy.

Every Friday [work day] members of Kick Nuclear and JAN UK hold a vigil outside the Japanese Embassy on Piccadilly in London to remember Fukushima and to protest against nuclear power.

The vigil begins at 10:00am GMT to coincide with the vigils held in Tokyo at 6:00pm JST, outside the Prime Minister’s residence and outside the Diet (Parliamentary) building. These two vigils are attended by hundreds of people. Dozens more such vigils are held across Japan, in the USA and in other parts of the world.

At noon, the London vigil moves to outside the London office of Tepco (Tokyo Electric Power Company), the company in charge of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

These weekly vigils first started during august of 2012.

Read outside of the London Japanese Embassy and TEPCO on 31st May 2019.

‘ Dear Anti-Nuclear Power/Weapon activists, friends and supporters,

The Japanese Government announced May 24 that it plans to arrange an international meeting to consider how to dispose of highly radioactive nuclear waste. 

Tokyo is set to get approval for the plan at the Group of 20 Ministerial Meeting on Energy Transitions and Global Environment for Sustainable Growth scheduled for mid-June in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture, and aims to launch the first roundtable this autumn.

Nuclear waste is a problem for all countries operating nuclear power plants, and the Japan-backed international summit on cooperation to dispose of it will be a world first. Participating nations are expected to aim for improved cooperation and formulation of an international “basic strategy” on dealing with radioactive waste.

High-level nuclear refuse is usually “vitrified” — mixed with melted glass and solidified — before deposited in an underground storage facility. Japan’s own disposal plans call for holding the waste for 30-50 years to cool it before burying it in stable rock formations at least 300 meters below ground. Finland is already building a major underground disposal site, while its neighbor Sweden is conducting a safety evaluation at the location of its own planned facility. However, there is no precedent for actually operating such an installation, and Japan has not yet even begun the survey process to choose a site.

The Japanese government will thus use the June 15-16 G-20 environment and energy summit meeting to urge member nations to cooperate on realistic solutions. Specifically, Japan will press nations with advanced nuclear disposal technology including those in Europe to share their know-how, and also promote international collaboration among research facilities and staff exchanges.

The international roundtable will put together a collection of proposals on a basic nuclear waste disposal cooperation strategy and how to explain the issue to the citizens of member nations.

We have to ask the following questions to the Japanese government and member countries:-

  1. All types of nuclear wastes are going to be cooled in the pool of water for more than 30 years and then stored in containers?
  2. These nuclear wastes are controlled by the private companies for at least 300 years? Which company can last 300 years?
  3. After 300 years and for 100,000 years, who is going to control these nuclear wastes?
  4. Decommissioning the nuclear plant takes how many years? 40-50 years?
  5. Who is going to cover all costs?
  6. Where is the final disposal sites for the spent fuel wastes?
  7. Why the government is reluctant to give up the nuclear power which costs so much and needs a very very long term control?

With strong solidarity with the Japanese Anti-Nuclear movements, which mobilised 10,000 demonstrators in Tokyo on 20th March 2019 and every Friday evening Anti-Nuclear Power action in front of the Prime Minister’s official residence and the Diat in Tokyo, we, the Japanese Against Nuclear-UK, Kick nuclear and CND are planning to organise the monthly vigil and leafleting including Statement-Read-Out form 11:30 AM. After handing a copy of the statement to the embassy, we will move to the TEPPCO office (14-18 Holborn near Chancery Lane Tube station). A copy of the statement will be posted to TEPCO. We will be there during 13:00-13:45 PM.’

Capenhurst – The Facts


Capenhurst – the Facts

A pamphlet that takes a critical look at URENCO’s Capenhurst uranium enrichment plant in Cheshire has been published by the Close Capenhurst Campaign. 

Capenhurst – the Facts is the first publication of its kind. The report includes a description of URENCO’s activities, transport of material, accidents that have occurred, the tailings plant that will store depleted uranium hexafluoride for years to come, and storage of submarine reactors.

Although the Capenhurst uranium enrichment plant plays a key part in the nuclear cycle, its functions – and indeed its existence – have been largely unknown to the general public. 

The 20-page pamphlet  is available for £2 from
closecapenhurst@gmail.com 

It can also be read online.

“Without a doubt, there are very real concerns about the lack of transparency surrounding Capenhurst’s activities – the adequacy  of nuclear safeguards at Capenhurst, environmental  and public health risks associated with Capenhurst’s routine operations, as well as incidents and accidents associated with Capenhurst’s management of uranium hexafluoride.”   
Dr Paul Dorfman  The Energy Institute University College London

“The uranium hexafluoride (UF6) containers in your photos are of the type 48Y which is designated as a Type B cask that is required to sustain immersion in a fire of 800°C for 30 minutes – this test condition is not that particularly onerous, neither in temperature nor duration of  the immersing fire.”
John Large (in an email to Radiation Free Lakeland) John Large was the Leading independent analyst of safety and security in the nuclear industry up until the time of his death, aged 75, from a heart attack in 2018

Capenhurst, The Facts is “quite wonderful, congratulations”  Helen Caldicott  Founding President of Physicians for Social Responsibility – The umbrella organisation International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985
ENDS

Contacts:
The Author Lowana Veal T:  00354 5577045, 00354 6991522.
Close Capenhurst T 0151 7060575. M. 07951965499
Publisher – Wildart Books. 015395 63671

Countering Capenhurst – Winter 2019

Ellesmere Port Igas Inquiry.

During January a planning inquiry took place in Chester concerning the proposal to set up a Fracking facility just a few miles from Capenhurst.

This was our response to it.

PRESS NOTICE

Radiation Free Lakeland and Close Capenhurst have successfully placed a late Comment

before the Ellesmere Port Igas Inquiry.

Uranium Hexafluoride and Fracking Side by Side?  What Could Go Wrong?

Nuclear safety group Radiation Free Lakeland says – “alongside the group, Close Capenhurst, we have been working on a report which exposes the unique dangers of the Capenhurst plant.  Capenhurst is the UK’s uranium enrichment plant with 600 container movements annually of uranium products including Uranium Hexafluoride which is uniquely dangerous to health. Adding a fracking site just 4 miles away from this already intolerable chemo and radiotoxic burden would be madness”.

URENCO in the news.

Source of Capenhurst humming noise which torments residents revealed.

In an update issued on Thursday, January 3, URENCO cited three ventilation stacks as the source of the nuisance noise.

New CEO

URENCO has appointed a new chief executive.

Boris Schucht will take up the position in May 2019, at which time he will also be appointed to the company’s board.

Up until now he has been working for the German company 50Hertz.

End Game

On January 11th PAWB (People Against Wylfa) issued a press release welcoming reports from Japan which strongly suggest that Hitachi will freeze their project to build a nuclear power station at Wylfa.

Then on January 17th we read: –

Hitachi scraps £16bn nuclear power station in Wales

This is very good news, yet it’s not end game until we close down all the existing reacting reactors, together with Capenhurst & Springfields.

While we still need to keep campaigning on the long term nukiller waste issue.

Statement.

What is very telling are some of the remarks made by Greg Clark MP, Business and Energy Secretary, in a statement to Parliament on January 17th.

‘Why the government was unable to reach an agreement with Hitachi over Wylfa nuclear plant that strikes a fair deal for billpayers and taxpayers’

These include the following:-

‘The cost of renewable technologies such as offshore wind has fallen dramatically, to the point where they now require very little public subsidy and will soon require none.’

&

‘Across the world, a combination of factors including tighter safety regulations, have seen the cost of most new nuclear projects increase, as the cost of alternatives has fallen and the cost of construction has risen. This has made the challenge of attracting private finance into projects more difficult than ever, with investors favouring other technologies that are less capital-intensive upfront, quicker to build, and less exposed to cost overruns.’

Thus we have progressed from the line about ‘too cheap to meter’, to ‘too expensive to build’ within just a few decades.

While the clean up costs will continue for many centuries in to the future.

Decommissioning Costs

During January the National Audit Office issued the following press release: –

Oil and gas in the UK – offshore decommissioning

The key line being: –

‘ The government estimates that decommissioning the UK’s offshore oil and gas infrastructure will cost taxpayers £24 billion, although the actual cost is highly uncertain – – – .’

Meanwhile this is the latest news on what it might cost to clean up the existing UK nukiller power plants.

‘ The current nuclear provision is estimated at some £164bn, over the next 120 years as the NDA (nuclear decommissioning authority) undertake the decommissioning of 17 of the UK’s older nuclear sites.’

Anniversaries & Forthcoming Events

Fukushima Day.

8th anniversary events in London 2019

Kick Nuclear will be holding an evening vigil outside of the Japanese Embassy on Monday March 11th, march on Saturday March 16th

April 26th – Chernobyl Day.

On Saturday April 27th SNNA will be holding an event outside of the Springfields plant.

May 4th – 8th.

This will be the 40 anniversary of the Torness Occupation.

Aside from marking this as the last major anti-nukiller action on a now completed green field site, it might also worth while making the point about this is now a dangerously ageing reactor.

October 10th – 62 years since the Windscale Fire.

We will be organising another event to mark this anniversary.

Details about this will be announced later year.

Other Events.

If anyone wishes to join us on any of our regular leafleting sessions about nukiller waste trains, or wants a speaker on any aspect of the dangers inherent with the use of nukiller power, then please let us know.

Countering Capenhurst – End of Year 2018

To fully appreciate why we need to focus upon what goes on at Capenhurst, just focus for a while upon the climate changing aspects of Uranium mining, and the issue of land rights within those regions.

This is just one example of how these issues are being challenged: – Aboriginal Elders Face Off with Uranium Mining Co. in the Australian Outback

They need our support !

Nukiller Sites – News Round Up.

Moorside.

The BIG NEWS is that Toshiba has decided to pull out of the project to build a new reactor at Moorside.

Now Read on:-

WE DID IT (MAYBE?) DID WE JUST STOP MOORSIDE?

Sizewell.

While there is still a danger that a new reactor might be build at Suffolk.

So here is the  Petition Against the Building of SIZEWELL C on the Suffolk Coast

Windscale, Springfields, Fracking, and Hex.

Following on from the event we held outside of the Springfields plant on the 61st anniversary of the Windscale fire, there has been a lot on the press about the Fracking sites in the area.

Yet very little has been published about the Hex in the plant, and how it is transport along country lanes from Capenhurst.

Now Private Eye has broken the silence: –

‘It has taken some doing but at last a national media outlet has exposed the close proximity of fracking operations on the Fylde to the UKs nuclear fuel site, ‘Springfields’.

Rossing Uranium Mine.

The RTZ Rossing Uranium Mine in Namibia will be very familiar to anyone who was active in an earlier age while campaigning against Apartheid. While the activities of the company have been the subject of Shareholders actions by Partizans (People against Rio Tinto and its Subsidiaries).

In November the company announced that it will sell its remaining 60% ownership in the mine to the China National Uranium Corporation Limited.

News In Brief

Cumbrian Transport.

Tyson H Burridge provide:-  ‘General Haulage, Hazardous Waste Transportation, Warehousing & Commercial Vehicle Maintenance Services throughout Cumbria and the UK’.

One of their vehicles was recently spotted inside the Capenhurst site.

Civil Nukiller police.

The Chief Constable of the CNC [ Civil Nukiller police ] is to depart next year.

Hinkley.

The Stop Hinkley Campaign Newsletter [ December 2018 ] is online now.

AWE Waste to Cumbria.

The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) plan to send up to 5,000 barrels of Higher Activity Waste to Sellafield for treatment and storage.

Anniversaries and Forthcoming Events

Fukushima Day.

Kick Nuclear will be holding an evening vigil outside of the Japanese Embassy on Friday March 8th, and a march on Saturday March 16th.

The full details will shortly be posted upon the Kick Nuclear Website.

April 26th – Chernobyl Day

On Saturday April 27th SNNA will be holding an event outside of the Springfields plant.

Torness  

 Next may it will be the 40 anniversary of the Torness Occupation.

Aside from marking this as the last major anti-nukiller action on a now completed green field site, it might also worth while making the point about this is now a dangerously ageing reactor.

October 10th – 62 years since the Windscale Fire.

We will be organising another event to mark this anniversary.

Details about this will be announced next year.

Other Events

If anyone wishes to join us on any of our regular leafleting sessions about nukiller waste trains, or wants a speaker on any aspect of the dangers inherent with the use of nukiller power, then please let us know.

Countering Capenhurst Early – Autumn 2018

Adding up Waste Flask Risks

There is a combination of activist & train spotter information which has been collected upon the movements of DRS nukiller waste trains for almost a quarter of a century.

Yet all of this information only gives the engine, but never the flask numbers.

So we just can’t work out from these records how long any individual flask have been in use.

One thing we do know is that steel subjected to radiation transforms in to Cobalt 60.

Knowing how many journeys the flasks were in use will help us to work out just how much Cobalt 60 they contain.

There is a way of doing this if we were to know the thickness of the ‘skip’ the fuel rods are placed in, and that of the outer steel casing. Plus the level of radiation the steel is subjected to from the used fuel rods per hour.

That should give us an idea of how long the waste flasks can safely be used before being replaced.

Yet that will only give us starting point, as we just don’t know how long any of the individual flasks have been in use, while there would seem to be very info on what happens to them once the time comes to decommission them.

So any information on this issue would be of very great help to us.

Test No Test.

One thing the nukiller industry keeps saying is that all the waste flasks are 2000% safe.

Yet this is not so as this videos shows.

Nuclear Train Flask Collision Test – Operation Smash Hit (1984)

What’s scary about the first test in this video is that it states some of the water in it escaped. In a real world ‘accident’ that would be highly radioactive water.

Pay particular attention to the section 4.26 in to this video.

New CCC Publication.

We are currently working on the production of a pamphlet about Capenhurst.

This will be published within the next couple of months.

It will be the first time that any such work has been published about the plant.

Fukushima Update.

Simply Info has just published a very worrying update about the continuing disaster at Fukushima.

Fukushima Microparticles, An Unrecognized Threat

This report states: –

‘ In the years since the initial disaster there have been disparities between the official radiation exposure estimates and the subsequent health problems in Japan. In some cases the estimates were based on faulty or limited early data. Where a better understanding of the exposure levels is known there still remained an anomaly in some of the health problems vs. the exposure dose. Rapid onset cancers also caused concern. The missing piece of the puzzle may be insoluble microparticles from the damaged reactors.’

It ends by stating that:-

‘Additional SimplyInfo.org reports on the microparticle issue are forthcoming.’

Forthcoming Events and Anniversaries.

There will be an event to mark 61 years since the Windscale fire outside of the Springfields plant on Weds Oct 10th. This is being organised by CCC & Radiation Free Lakelands. It would be good if we could get a number of activists from outside the area to join us on the day.

July 2019

The next DRS Open Day will take place at their depot at Carlisle.

We will be back to leaflet the event in the company of our fellow activists from Radiation Free Lakeland.