Countering Capenhurst Issue 11 – April 2017

This issue of Countering Capenhurst is very much an update one, as we are working on events which will be taking place later on in the year.

A full list of these events and new resource lists will be published within the next few weeks.

What Now and What Next ?

There has been a lot of news stories of last about Toshiba / Westinghouse, & EDF having a lot of financial problems. How this will effect new build at Moorside and Hinckley is very much of an open question.

Rather that duplicate these news stories we would recommend you look at the following websites.

No2nuclearpower    &   Radiation Free Lakeland

Clearing the submarine site.

It looks like the Capenhurst site is now being cleared for the building to hold all of the old 27 submarine waste

Here is what proves it: –

First of all on Google Earth

You can see a JCB moving one of the hex drums in it, and just where the other depleted Uranium Hex drums used to be.

Now look at map on PP 30 of this document.

Submarine Dismantling Project (SDP)

Consultation Document on the Site for Interim Storage of Intermediate Level Radioactive Waste.    14th November 2014

It’s one & the same location.

URENCO Finances

Amongst the many news stories which have been speculating about Brexit we can upon the following one:-

‘The German head of one of the UK’s top nuclear companies is counseling Prime Minister Theresa May’s government on what needs to be done to protect a global hub for the industry from Brexit.

Included in this news story Is this gem of information: –

‘Companies like Urenco face a potentially “high impact” from Brexit, Moody’s Investors Service wrote in a May 22 note saying that the overall credit impact from leaving the EU will be modest. Urenco, which has 2.1 billion pounds ($2.6 billion) of outstanding debt is rated Baa1, two grades above junk by Moody’s.’

Nuclear flasks failed safety test.

Worries about the issue of Uranium Hex are nothing new.

In April 2000 the following news story was published in the Guardian : –

It reported that: –

‘ Flasks used by British Nuclear Fuels to transport dangerous radioactive material can resist fire for less than three minutes ‘ … … …

‘ The tests by France’s nuclear safety agency showed that the flasks would rupture within 175 seconds in a fire.

The flasks are used to transport 20,000 tonnes of uranium hexafluoride or “hex” – the raw material to make fuel for nuclear power stations – around the world every year, much of it for BNFL. Hex is particularly dangerous because as well as being radioactive it reacts with air to produce hydrofluoric acid, a gas which destroys the lungs.’ … … …

‘BNFL confirmed yesterday that it used 48Y containers for shipping hex in Britain and abroad. It was transported from Springfields to Capenhurst near Chester for enrichment, as well as to enrichment plants in Russia, the US, France, Germany and Holland.’

What we would like to know is just how many of these flasks are still in use to store depleted uranium hex at Capenhurst.

Now read this: –

Thermo-mechanical study of bare 48Y UF6 containers exposed to the regulatory fire environment.

Film Night

We have put together the following short list of youtube film clips which you might to watch, as they show the way the nukiller industry has been viewed over the last 60 years.

Peace – And The Atom (1954)

Cumberland, Preston & Cheshire.

Criticality 1969

Nuclear criticality training film, UKAEA, 1969.

Dismantling an atomic building Capenhurst site timelapse video

 

Atomic Milk (1957)

Windscale and Egremont, Cumberland

Urenco corporate video

Video showing the transportation of cylinders to Urenco

&

Protest outside of the URENCO Almelo site in the Netherlands  June 7th 2012

Protest tegen uitbreiding Urenco Almelo