WildLife and the Atom

New Publication

First published by Greenpeace [London] in 1983,Wildlife and the Atom examines the damage done by Nukiller Radiation to our fellow creates.

That was before the ongoing disasters at both Chernobyl and Fukushima.

Now the Close Capenhurst Campaign has produced a second revised edition of the pamphlet in collaboration with Radiation Free Lakeland, and financial help from the Greenpeace [London] group.

Online for now.

Our intention is and always has been to publish a print edition of the pamphlet.

This will be done just as soon as Lockdown is over, and we are able to distribute it.

We will announce the print edition just as soon as we are able to do so.

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

New CCC, Kick Nuclear, & Radiation Free Lakeland Springfields Report.

Spotlight on Springfields

On 25th April 1986 the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the former Soviet Union shook the world. While that disaster has been unfolding for the last 32 years the worlds first nuclear fuel manufacturing plant based in a small village near Preston, UK has been quietly continuing with its civil and military nuclear contracts

Through the gates of the Springfields plant pass a deadly cargo of nuclear materials which have fuelled nuclear bombs, nuclear reactors and nuclear accidents for over 70 years. These materials pose a radiological and chemical threat to human health and to the environment.

Springfields has been operating so quietly under the radar that the recent public inquiry into fracking at Roseacre Woods has failed to expose the inconvenient truth that the fracking HGVs would share the exact same country lane with nuclear materials including the uniquely toxic uranium hexaflouride (Hex) to and from the Springfields site.

This briefing is a snapshot of hard earned knowledge gained by campaigners. It is a work in progress and aims to shine a Spotlight on Springfields”

In a forward to the briefing Dr Paul Dorfman of The Energy Institute, University College London states:

‘Given the very significant radiological risk associated with production at Springfields, and the fact that the major population centre of Liverpool is down-wind, it’s truly astonishing that more attention hasn’t been paid to this facility.  This well-researched document opens the lid on the can of worms that is Springfields’

Included in the briefing is:

Hex’ and some reasons for concern –

  • In 1989 M. A. Simpson of BNFL Springfields wrote: “The fuel and enrichment divisions within BNFL are involved in some 4000 lorry journeys per year covering the transport of non-irradiated fuel elements as well as the feed materials and intermediate products of the front end of the nuclear fuel cycle.”   (Transportation for the Nuclear Industry Edited By D.G. Walton, S.M. Blackburn)
  • Flasks used by the nuclear industry to carry deadly radioactive material around the country could explode, causing nuclear disaster. Research by French scientists found that the flasks were only able to resist fire for less than three minutes. The flasks transport uranium hexafluoride, or “hex”- used to make fuel for nuclear power stations.
  • As well as being radioactive, hex reacts with air to produce hydrofluoric acid. This is a gas, which can destroy the lungs. The nuclear industry transports hex to Russia, the United States and Europe from its Springfields nuclear plant in Preston.

Uranium concentrations found in Springfields stream sediments have been found to be about 20 times background level. Radmil monitoring organisation, Lancashire County Council’s now defunct nuclear watchdog, had tested the River Ribble and there was no radiation along it from granite. The elements which formed the source of the Ribble pollution could only have come from Springfields.

The Springfields website boasts that it has already produced several million fuel elements and provided products and services for over 140 reactors in more than 12 countries. The country road to and from Springfields, situated at the far end of Preston New Road, is the worlds first nuclear fuel highway. Springfields is being primed to produce ever more nuclear fuels and nuclear materials and now may well have fracking lorries for company.

A print edition of this report will soon be available.